March 26--A human-caused fire near Chimayo burned two houses and at least two outbuildings Sunday night.
The blaze, which started Sunday afternoon near N.M. 76 and remains under investigation, burned 9.8 acres of federal and private land by Monday morning. Earlier reports had estimated the fire at more than 20 acres then a report from Monday morning downsized that number to three acres.
As of 4:30 p.m. Monday, a state forestry official sent out an email stating "There was a miscalculation done on the GPS mapping from this morning, which is why this number is larger. This is the final number."
Several families evacuated from houses near the fire were allowed to return home in the pre-dawn hours Monday, according to Dan Ware, New Mexico State Forestry public information officer.
Firefighters from the Bureau of Land Management and Santa Fe County fought to contain the fire as wind kicked up embers through the night. They continued to mop up and monitor the fire Monday morning.
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