Firefighters have rescued an abandoned newborn elk calf found amid the ashes of the nation’s largest wildfire, as calving season approaches its peak in New Mexico and fires rage across the American West.
Missoula, Montana-based firefighter Nate Sink said Tuesday that he happened upon the motionless elk calf on the ground of a fire-blackened New Mexico forest as he patrolled and extinguished lingering hot spots.
“The whole area is just surrounded in a thick layer of ash and burned trees. I didn’t think it was alive,” said Sink, who was deployed to the state to help contain a wildfire that by Wednesday had spread across 486 square miles (1,260 square kilometers) and destroyed hundreds of structures. It is one of five major uncontained fires burning in New Mexico amid extremely dry and windy conditions.
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