Couple fled Ruidoso home minutes before it burned

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    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (KOAT) — On Monday, Melanie Luttrell walked out her front door and was met with smoke plumes coming from around her neighborhood in the Alpine Cellars Village area of Ruidoso.

“It looked as if somebody was holding up a piece of orange film in front of the sun,” Luttrell said.

She had minutes to pack her most important things: clothes, her laptop, medicine and her dogs. Luttrell had to leave behind her 41 finches and cat, Abbey, as she had to evacuate immediately.

“I was afraid. I saw how fast that fire had hit my area, I just couldn’t, there was no way I was going to take a chance. So we left,” Luttrell said.

Twenty minutes after she had left to go to her partner Vern’s house, she got word from a friend that her house was gone.

“There’s a lot of memories. This was my home, just for me, my daughter and my granddaughter, And I think the saddest thing was when I told my daughter, and she said, that’s my home,” Luttrell said.

Luttrell and Vern headed on Highway 70 for Roswell, where they stayed the night in their SUV. Melanie told me the shelters were very well organized, but she felt most comfortable in her car. Her dinner that night was cheese and crackers – one of the few things she grabbed before she left her home. She said she could barely sleep that night.

“I was just praying so hard that our community would get out quick, and they would take heed to the warnings and leave,” Luttrell said.

The next day, they drove to Albuquerque where her cousin lives and has been staying there. She told me she is still processing everything that is happening, and messages from her friends are revealing more of the reality Ruidoso is facing.

“Last night, I think, was the first time that, even though I’ve seen fires and the devastation afterwards, it wasn’t at my home. And when I saw a neighbor’s home that she showed me that burned down just down at the end of my road, and I saw the devastation, and for the first time, I actually saw the trees black and the sky black. It actually hit me then, and I did everything to hold myself together,” Luttrell said.

Her message to anyone who hasn’t left the area already is to get out now.

“Forget about all the monetary things. And even right now, I’m having to consider my home, unfortunately, a monetary thing. I’m glad I left, because I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t left my home,” Luttrell said.

If you require any assistance regarding the wildfires, call 833-NMFIRE6 for information or help.

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