New Mexico's governor signed an emergency declaration for 33 drought-affected counties over the weekend, as dozens of wildfires raged across several U.S. states in the Southwest and Midwest.
The big picture: The blazes have razed tens of thousands of acres and scores of structures over the past week and triggered evacuations over the weekend of some 4,000 homes in New Mexico and Nebraska — where the death of a retired fire chief was confirmed Sunday.