Associated Press Dennis Faber, flight engineer for the Lockheed C-130 slurry tanker plane, waits for the word to lift off from the runway at Alamogordo White Sands Regional Airport yesterday in Alamogordo, N.M. The tanker, which has a capacity of 3,000 gallons of fire-retardant slurry, is one of several tankers being used to fight the Kokopelli Fire in Ruidoso, N.M.

ALTO, N.M. - Strong wind yesterday spread a grass and timber fire that already had burned through at least 30 homes in southern New Mexico, and a second fire spreading from an Indian reservation forced the evacuation of 200 people.

Wind gusts up to 50 mph were expected yesterday around the fire that had burned through homes in the Kokopelli subdivision, in a heavily forested mountain resort near Ruidoso where homes are worth up to $1 million.

Gov. Gary Johnson said it appeared to be accidental, caused by "ashes out of (a) fireplace that got dumped in the back yard."

Firefighters had been able to keep the fire, which was burning in a narrow strip about 4 miles long, to 650 acres, said Jerome MacDonald, chief for firefighting crews of the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.

"It's a very extensive fire and there's a lot of damage," said Ruidoso Mayor Leon Eggleston. "It just doesn't look good. I'm very concerned for the whole area."

The governor said up to 1,300 people were evacuated in the Ruidoso area. Local fire officials said some 150 homes had been evacuated.

About 20 miles northeast at the town of Hondo, 200 people were told to evacuate as a fire that started on the Mescalero Apache Reservation grew to 16,000 acres overnight and threatened homes, state police said. The state Office of Emergency Services and Security on yesterday estimated damage from that blaze at only 10,860 acres.

One home north of Mescalero was destroyed and several other ranch homes were threatened by the blaze, firefighters said.

The fire traveled some 15 miles southwest of Hondo on yesterday morning, burning grass, pinyon pine and juniper. Strong wind prevented firefighters and aircraft from working on the blaze, firefighters said.

Two much smaller blazes on the Mescalero Apache Reservation - 100 acres and 40 acres - were contained during the night, said Tom Gorman of the state Office of Emergency Services and Security. Another 100-acre blaze continued burning on the reservation yesterday.

Fire season in New Mexico is about two to four weeks ahead of usual. Much of the state is extremely dry with little snow cover.