NWS “red flag” warnings issued for several states

National Weather Service “red flag” warnings have been issued for parts of New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Nevada and Utah.

Authorities are warning that several of those states are seeing critical fire conditions over the extended holiday weekend.

The warnings come as crews in northern New Mexico work to stop the growth of the nation’s largest active wildfire. The 7-week-old fire is the largest in New Mexico history and has burned 491 square miles east of Santa Fe since being started in April.

Crews are patrolling partially burned areas and clearing and cutting containment lines to try to get that fire under control.