As 20 wildfires burn in the state, New Mexico governor wants to ban the sale of fireworks
![Smoke rises from two wildfires outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FSwWS4LpDWSakmxfdagtMh-415-80.jpg)
About 1,000 firefighters are battling 20 wildfires in New Mexico, with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) announcing on Sunday that at least 200 structures have burned down and 900 more remain threatened.
Lujan Grisham has declared a state of emergency in five counties, and told reporters she has also requested additional resources from the White House. "We need more federal bodies for firefighting, fire mitigation, public safety support on the ground in New Mexico," she said.
This will be "a tough summer," Lujan Grisham added, and that's why campfires are banned and on Monday she will "be asking every local government to be thinking about ways to ban the sales of fireworks."
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The wildfires are burning in more than half of the state's 33 counties, and on Saturday, a fire in northern New Mexico that started April 6 merged with a newer fire to form a blaze covering 66 square miles. Evacuation orders are in place in several counties, including San Miguel and Mora.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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