This organization has helped clean up over 60 homes destroyed by the McBride Fire but there's still much to do in recovery efforts

Josiah Plummer of Rio Rancho piled a St. Francis of Assisi statue, small candlesticks and other odds and ends together - burnt remnants from a mobile home destroyed by the McBride Fire in Ruidoso last month - all a little worse for wear but still usable should the homeowner wish to keep them.

Plummer was one of dozens of volunteers hosted by the First Baptist Church Ruidoso via New Mexico Baptist Disaster Relief working May 6 to sift through and clear the site where concrete dust rose and blew about when a breeze came up.

It was a light breeze. Nothing like the 90 miles per hour wind gusts of April 13 that pushed the McBride Fire through over 6,000 acres of private and public lands. The gusting winds meant flames could not reach the ground in some places leaving scorched trees and the ground largely untouched.

A short distance from the clean up site, a grove of burned trees stood below homes, some intact, others not.

The home was one of the 207 structures lost in the McBride Fire that ignited April 12 near Gavilan Canyon Road in the Village of Ruidoso.

"I'm here to help those who have been through this fire and have lost a lot and are really hurting," Plummer said. 

Plummer, who arrived in Ruidoso on May 2 to help with relief efforts, has helped in the cleanup of about six homes impacted by the fire.

"It's really difficult to see these people who have lost a lot but it's really something special to be able to talk with them and to find something that they've lost," Plummer said. 

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New Mexico Baptist Disaster Relief is part of Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief.

"Our mission here is to help people who were impacted by the incident that happened," New Mexico Baptist Convention Disaster Relief Deputy Director Ed Greene said. "There was the high winds that knocked down a lot of trees that were on houses or on driveways or in houses."

Greene and the first groups of volunteers arrived in Ruidoso while the McBride Fire was still burning.

"For the first week, we went around to places where the trees were problematic to people," Greene said. "Cut up a lot of trees and put them out by the roadside so the City or the County or whoever could come by and pick them up."

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In the weeks since the fire's start and eventual containment, Greene's team has cleaned up debris from 65 properties, but fielded hundreds of requests for help.

"(We've) assessed a bunch more that didn't need our work," Greene said. "Maybe 35, it changes all the time."

He said the New Mexico Baptist Disaster Relief accepted assistance requests through Monday, May 9. However, the organization ceased accepting assistance requests on Monday, May 9.

While cleaning up homes, the volunteers from across the U.S. have helped move debris into piles of lumber, metal and concrete-based construction materials so they can be sorted into designated dumpsters.

Clean-ups can take anywhere from less than a day to several days depending on the size of the property and the difficulty of the clean-up. Greene said.

New Mexico Baptist Disaster Relief volunteers have assisted with more than property clean up. Volunteers laundry and showers in their portable laundry and shower stations since shortly after the fires' start, Greene said.

Generally, anywhere from 50-72 volunteers were available depending on the week, Greene said, as volunteers arrive a week at a time.

While volunteers help Ruidoso residents clean up and cope with the loss, the U.S. Forest Service Burn Area Emergency Response (BAER) team worked to mitigate damage in the burn scars of both the McBride Fire and Nogal Fire.

A public meeting was scheduled for 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. May 9 at the Ruidoso Convention Center, 111 Sierra Blanca Drive, for a question and answer session and for the public to learn about the BAER team's work. The virtual meeting will be streamed on the Village's YouTube Channel. 

Nicole Maxwell can be contacted by email at nmaxwell@alamogordonews.com, by phone at 575-415-6605 or on Twitter at @nicmaxreporter. If you have questions about your subscription, please contact Customer Service at  AlamogordoDailyNews@Gannett.com or call 1-877-301-0013.