Officials with the Roswell Fire Department (RFD) are trying to determine what sparked a massive fire Thursday night at the Roswell Air Center.
“The cause of the fire is under investigation by the RFD Fire Marshal’s Office,” Todd Wildermuth, RFD public information officer, said Friday in an email to the Roswell Daily Record.
He has added that the New Mexico State Fire Marshal’s Office, New Mexico State Police, and the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will assist with the investigation.
No injuries were reported from the blaze that consumed a warehouse at 56 G St., located on the east side of the Air Center.
Wildermuth said that personnel from the RFD and volunteer fire departments throughout the county responded shortly before 7:30 p.m. Thursday to a fire at the warehouse and worked, amid fierce winds, to put out the blaze that consumed the structure and sent black smoke high into the air.
“The fire was officially deemed to be under control around 1 a.m. Friday and fully extinguished around 3 a.m.,” Wildermuth said in the email.
AerSale, an aviation business, had leased the structure and used it to store equipment and airplane parts. The Roswell Job Corps Center, located across the street from the fire, was ordered to evacuate by authorities.
On Friday, Amanda Caruana, the senior administrative assistant for Roswell Job Corps, told the Roswell Daily Record in a phone interview that the roughly 80 students who live on campus were taken to the National Guard Armory on Earl Cummings Loop. Students were authorized to return to the Job Corps campus at midnight.
A post on the city of Roswell Fire Department’s Facebook page stated that any other evacuations were based on the decisions of individual facilities in the area.
Roswell Police and the Chaves County Sheriff’s Office instructed people to stay clear of the fire or to shelter in place.
Sheriff Mike Herrington warned in a Thursday night message on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page that because of the presence of chemicals in the warehouse, the fire had the potential to produce deadly gases.
In an email Friday, Wildermuth confirmed that there were some liquids in the warehouse but that emergency personnel determined they were not a threat to people in the area.
Electricity was briefly off across much of the Air Center on Thursday, including at the airport terminal.
Initially, a flight from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport scheduled to land in Roswell at 11:29 pm was canceled due to the power outage. But the flight was authorized to arrive on a delayed schedule at 12:05 am, after power had been restored to most of the base, according to Adam Covington, general manager of AV Flights Roswell, which handles services for the airport, later told the Roswell Daily Record.
Roswell Job Corps and some schools in South Roswell operated on two-hour delays Friday.
Classes began two hours behind schedule at Sidney Gutierrez Middle School, a public charter school near the warehouse.
The Roswell Independent School District (RISD) also implemented two-hour delays at Sunset Elementary School, Mountain View Middle School and University High School.
“With the information we had last night about the possible loss of electricity and potential evacuations, this decision was made to ensure that we would have electricity and allow time for our families that were impacted to make it to school,” RISD Supt. Brian Luck said on Friday morning.
