City of Albuquerque offers fire evacuees support, resources

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – As wildfires continue to spread, forcing many families to evacuate their homes in northern New Mexico, the City of Albuquerque is opening their doors for folks displaced by the fires.

Albuquerque has sent firefighters and donations up to Las Vegas to help with disaster relief, but with evacuees coming, the city is now offering places to stay, child care and free entertainment.

“Right here this is a free RV park for evacuees, this has been another interesting request we didn’t see coming, a lot of individuals up there do have RV’s and they need somewhere to go, and they don’t want to have the full reservation system and cost associated with other RV parks so this is our emergency RV park,” said Mayor Tim Keller.

Keller said they have room for 100 RVs at Balloon Fiesta Park—but the city is taking that request one step further and making sure the whole family is taken care of.

“If you need childcare we have slots available, if you are an evacuee same thing with our after school programs. Normally these things are only for Albuquerque residents, but by activating our emergency operations we are using that capacity to help those evacuated to Albuquerque,” said Keller.

But they are doing more than just offering the essentials, evacuees can also visit places like the BioPark, the Balloon Museum and city golf courses for free.

“We hope we are playing a small role to make each day you are not at home a little bit better, whether it is the zoo, or food, or child care, we want to try and help,” Keller said.

If you need help from the city, call the 24/7 hotline, 505-244-8604, and they will help get you the resources you need.

And if you are an evacuee wanting to go to the zoo or a city golf course, just show your driver’s license to prove you are from an evacuated area, and they will let you in for free.