LAS CRUCES - It took as many as 45 volunteer firefighters from multiple departments about three hours Tuesday to contain a range fire that burned an approximately five-mile stretch along New Mexico Highway 26, near Hatch.

A Red Flag Warning, issued by the National Weather Service for strong winds and low humidity - perfect weather conditions for extreme fire danger - was in effect when the fire started about noon Tuesday. Robert Pittman, chief of the Hatch Volunteer Fire Department, said an exact cause of the fire had not been immediately determined, but he suspected that a passing motorists on state Highway 26 may have flipped a lit cigarette onto the dry brush.

"But we don't know exactly how it started," Pittman said.

The fire was about 12 miles west of Hatch on land that Pittman said is owned by Uvas Valley Dairy. With increasing winds and dry conditions, the fire spread quickly and firefighters from Hatch, Rincon, Derry, Arrey, Sierra County, and volunteers from the BLM and New Mexico Department of Transportation also helped out.

"At it's peak, I'd estimate there were about 45 people out there fighting it," said Rob Spence, volunteer firefighter in Hatch. "When Chief Pittman and I got out there, there was a swath about a quarter-mile long that had been burned. It easily covered an area of a couple of miles."

Pittman and Spence took Hatch's 500-gallon brush truck to the fire and emptied the water in it quickly.

"It got exciting when the fire reached within a

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mile of a major stockpile of hay bales," Spence said. "But fortunately, the wind shifted and help arrived right at that time. I don't know what could have happened if the fire had reached those bales."

The fire created enough smoke that it could be seen from miles away.

"One of the volunteer firefighters who was able to join us told us that he could see the smoke all the way from Hatch," Spence said.

Fortunately, no homes or livestock near the fire were harmed. Spence said the quick assistance from volunteer fire departments, BLM and the New Mexico Department of Transportation kept the fire from becoming worse.

"I can't emphasize enough what that help meant," Spence said.

Steve Ramirez can be reached at (575) 541-5452.

Wildfire

•An approximately five-mile stretch along New Mexico Highway 26, near Hatch, was burned Tuesday.

•The fire started about noon and took about three hours to contain.

•Much of the land belongs to Uvas Valley Dairy, but some firefighters believe that land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management was also burned.

•No cause of the fire, or the estimated dollar amount of damage, were immediately determined.

•Firefighters from Hatch, Rincon, Garfield, Derry, Arrey, Sierra County and the BLM battled the range fire.

•Smoke could be seen from as far away as Hatch, which is about 12 miles west of where the fire was.