As Jesus Cadena sat on his front porch in Ruidoso, smoking cigarettes and watching the helicopters and airplanes drop water over the South Fork Fire, he had no way of knowing that according to New Mexico State Police he was officially unaccounted for in a disaster.
Cadena and his family are one of thousands who reunited during the hours after the South Fork and Salt fires tore through neighborhoods and forest in southeastern New Mexico. A list of unaccounted people that has grown and shrunk since the fires ignited on June 17 now sits at one, officials with the Village of Ruidoso said on Wednesday.
Two people died in the fire.
Yesterday, officials reported that a list of 89 people it was aware of were “unaccounted for” were a priority to contact after the fires and floods.
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Michael Scales, a Lincoln County emergency management specialist, told Source New Mexico that all people unaccounted for on the list given to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department were located by midday Wednesday.
Ruidoso police are still looking for the final person on the list.
Cadena’s reunite after evacuation orders separated family
Thousands of Ruidoso-area residents had to evacuate their homes and businesses last week, fleeing from the treacherous South Fork and Salt fires which continue to smolder.
But for some people, heartbreak was the first emotion they experienced as loved ones chose to stay behind.
Cyndi Cadena was one evacuee who had to leave an elderly parent behind in Ruidoso.
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“I talked to my mom and dad and my mom tried to persuade my dad and he still didn’t want to leave,” she said.
Cadena takes care of her octogenarian parents in their Ruidoso home near the Walmart Supercenter. Isabel and Jesus Cadena built the cabin in the late 1970s and have lived in the Sacramento Mountain community since.
When the fire started last Monday, Cyndi Cadena said she talked with her brother who works for Mescalero Apache Telecom. As he saw the fires worsen, he told his family they needed to get out of the area. An air tanker drops fire retardant called slurry over and around areas in the Village of Ruidoso, N.M., on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Photo by Chancey Bush / Albuquerque Journal) PHOTO CANNOT BE REPUBLISHED
Cyndi Cadena said the family was initially told to go to the senior center in Ruidoso Downs, but then they were directed farther away to Roswell.
“We were finding out that Roswell was getting full and there’s no place to stay,” she said.
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Members of the family were able to eventually find space in Roswell, but Cyndi and her parents stayed, trying to help other elderly community members navigate the chaos at the senior center.
“I was trying to help, you know, because everyone needed help,” Cyndi said.
The three Cadenas remained in the area into the early Tuesday morning hours.
Jesus Cadena did not want to leave. Several hours later he was running low on oxygen.
Cyndi Cadena said as the smoke settled in the sky, the chaos seemed to calm a bit, so she took her parents back to their home and got her father hooked up to his home ventilator. This gave her a chance to grab several more things from the house, let her parents rest and feed them.
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Around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, she said she was ready to take them all down the mountain through Hondo, to Roswell and eventually safety. After trying to persuade her father again, she closed the windows, sealed up the house and left with her mother. Jesus Cadena sits on his porch in Ruidoso as the South Fork and Salt fires burn around him in June 2024 (Photo provided by Cyndi Cadena).
“I said ‘let’s go mom, we gotta go’ and I hugged my dad and I just went out the door and prayed,” she said through tears.
Her brother-in-law stayed behind to take care of the older Cadena and look in on other elderly residents who did not want to leave Ruidoso.
The Cadena women traveled over and around northern Ruidoso and made their way to Alamogordo where they stayed with family until Thursday. Because internet and cellular service was down back home, they had no way of communicating with the family that stayed.
She called hotlines dedicated to reuniting people during the fire, asking if anyone knew if her father was still in Ruidoso. Her calls placed Jesus Cadena on a list of officially unaccounted for people that emergency responders tracked during fires and floods.
Cyndi Cadena also called New Mexico State Police for a welfare check, which revealed that her father and brother-in-law were still at the family house.
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The family’s concerns were calmed last Thursday during a Facetime call with Jesus Cardena. Isabel Cadena (left) and her daughter, Cyndi Cadena, pose for a portrait in front of their temporary home in Bent, New Mexico after evacuating from Ruidoso wildfires in June 2024 (Photo by Leah Romero / Source NM).
“My mom got to see him so they were sentimental and everything,” Cyndi Cadena said about her parents talking through the phone.
She said it gave her mother some comfort to be able to at least see her husband, who still refused to leave Ruidoso because he wanted to wait for the rain that followed.
The family remained separated until Sunday evening, June 23 when evacuation orders were lifted and residents were able to return to their homes and assess the damage.
Cadena told Source New Mexico via text message that they were able to go to Ruidoso Downs where they all reunited.
The family home was untouched, but many other community members were not so lucky.
NM FAST (New Mexico Federal and State Technology) is now accepting applications for a free space-sector accelerator cohort designed to help New Mexico-based technology companies compete for federal funding through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The cohort targets founders and researchers pursuing grants from NASA, Space Force and related federal agencies, with programming set to launch July 21.
The cohort will admit six to 10 New Mexico companies and run for 10 to 12 weeks, meeting in weekly sessions of approximately one and a half to two hours. Programming covers the full arc of federal commercialization strategy, including space-sector SBIR/STTR opportunities and federal funding pathways, proposal development for technical narratives and commercialization components, federal procurement positioning and agency discovery, capital strategy and follow-on funding options, and transition planning from Phase I to Phase II awards. Participants also receive targeted one-on-one advisory support throughout the program. The cohort is offered at no cost to accepted companies.
The program is open to companies at both the pre-award and early-award stages. The majority of cohort seats are designed for Phase 0 companies preparing to submit Phase I SBIR/STTR applications to NASA or Space Force. A limited number of seats are available for Phase I awardees working toward Phase II readiness and Phase III transition planning.
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“New Mexico has a deep base of research and a growing pipeline of founders ready to translate that work into companies that can compete for federal R&D dollars,” said Carlos Murguia, director of the Technology and Innovation Gateway at Arrowhead Center. “This cohort focuses specifically on the space sector, pairing New Mexico companies with Larta’s expertise in SBIR and STTR commercialization to give founders a clear, structured path from early-stage research to federal award.”
Larta Institute, NM FAST’s commercialization partner for this program, will lead the full design and delivery of the accelerator curriculum. Larta has supported startups that have collectively raised more than $23.7 billion since 1993 and brings that track record to founders working in New Mexico’s growing aerospace and space technology sector.
The cohort aligns with the aerospace priority sector named in the New Mexico Entrepreneurship Programmatic Support Grant and is relevant to companies working at the intersection of advanced computing, bioscience and advanced energy applications in space-related contexts.
NM FAST is administered by Arrowhead Center at New Mexico State University and operates statewide, serving founders in Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Los Alamos and rural communities across New Mexico. Over more than a decade of programming, NM FAST has supported more than 470 New Mexico startups and helped companies secure nearly $28 million in federal SBIR awards. Targeted outreach is directed to rural, women, veteran and minority entrepreneurs.
The program is sponsored by the New Mexico Economic Development Department’s Technology and Innovation Office through the New Mexico Entrepreneurship Programmatic Support Grant, which supports continued statewide programming for SBIR/STTR-eligible companies in the four priority sectors.
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Applications are open now and will be accepted through July 14, 2026. Interested companies can apply at forms.gle/CqSwEL7LahqB5pGu9. Space is limited, and selected companies will be notified before the program launch.
SANTA FE, N.M. – Santa Fe County and Edgewood approved a new agreement and ordinance that secures ongoing fire and EMS services for Edgewood residents.
According to a joint announcement from the Town of Edgewood and Santa Fe County on June 19, the two governments negotiated and adopted a new Joint Powers Agreement and ordinance to keep the Santa Fe County Fire Department serving the town.
County and town representatives drafted the agreement together. The town adopted the ordinance unanimously at a special meeting on June 16, putting an end to weeks of uncertainty.
Santa Fe County District 3 Commissioner Camilla Bustamante said, “I believe we are all relieved to know that the people of Edgewood will continue to have the fire and EMS services necessary to protect their homes, their families, and their community. This community deserves nothing less.”
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The announcement said the ordinance takes effect five days after final publication. The statement also said no further action or approval is needed to guarantee continued fire suppression, fire prevention, and EMS services for Edgewood residents.
Both governments noted the agreement will continue indefinitely unless either side ends it with five years’ notice.
