City Offers Resources for Firefighting and Aid Efforts

May 5, 2022

The City of Albuquerque Office of Emergency Management is working across departments to offer additional resources to communities impacted by the wildfires burning in northern New Mexico. Mayor Keller and City leaders have been talking to leaders in impacted communities about their current and potential needs to best determine how the City can help.

“The Office of Emergency Management is prepared to help our neighbors in any way that we can,” said Roger Ebner, Director of the Office of Emergency Management. “Our team is working to field requests and coordinate with other emergency management agencies to make sure New Mexicans have the resources they need to get through this.”

The City has already provided 750 shelter kits to evacuees and to organizations in preparation for evacuees. Albuquerque Fire Rescue has sent mutual aid to Big Hole, Hermit’s Peak, and Calf Canyon. A total of 70 members have responded and the department continues to evaluate resources that can be provided.

“We know there are a lot of northern New Mexicans finding refuge here in our city and we want to make sure that they know they are not alone in this fight,” said Mayor Tim Keller. “The One Burque spirit extends to our entire state, that’s the New Mexican way.”

Emergency management agencies or coordinators can request resources from the City of Albuquerque by calling 505-244-8604. Evacuees looking for supplies, lodging or other resources can visit cabq.gov/wildfires or call 311 or 505-768-2000 for those outside of the city.

The City is taking the following actions to support folks in need:

• Standing up emergency hotel lodging for evacuees
• Making 100 free RV parking spots available at Balloon Fiesta Park
• Providing free childcare through City child development services and after school programming (requires enrollment)
• Making hundreds of shelf stable meals available for evacuation sites
• Providing snack packets for emergency responders on-site 
• Collecting and delivering two truckloads of hygiene products for residents who do not have access to them
• Making food, crates, blankets, and other supplies for pets available for evacuees
• Deploying mobile preventive pet care to evacuee sites  
• Providing free admission for residents of affected counties to the BioPark and Balloon Museum
• Giving access to computers and WiFi at City libraries for residents to use to fill out FEMA applications
• Providing free WiFi at Balloon Fiesta Park, community centers, and other City facilities through the WiFi in Neighborhoods program
• Authorizing ACS to send a team to northern New Mexico to provide support and connections to resources if needed
• The Albuquerque Sunport is supporting 10-tankers being used to fight fires
• AFR has been and will continue to provide mutual aid and resources where available
• APD is taking traffic calls the NMSP would normally take to help with their staffing shortages
• APD will help patrol City evacuee sites as needed