Deadly wildfires. They have hit New Mexico, and the state is now bracing for storms and possible flash flooding. In hard-hit Rio Doso, thousands of residents have been evacuated and hundreds of structures have been destroyed. Now that town is bracing for heavy rain. Tonight, we are joined by the mayor of Rio Doso, Mayor Lynn Crawford. Mayor, thank you so much for joining Top Story. We are so sorry to see what your community is dealing with and having to go through right now. Talk to us about what's happening with both the Salt and South Fork fire, zero % contained as of today. Is that still the case?

Well, thank you, Ellison. Yes, that is still the case. We have well over 800 firefighters on the ground that are actually actively working on the fire as we speak. The Salt fire has been somewhat subdued. It's still not contained. The fire on the South Fork is a different story. Of course, that's the one that ravaged through our community, destroying well over 1400 structures, many of those homes. We still are in the area doing recon. We have the gas company in making sure all the gas facilities are turned off, the electrical facilities, and And just in now with the general from the National Guard, we have a heavy presence of police, Sheriff's offices around. The outreach from the surrounding states and communities has been remarkable.

Do we have any indication right now as to how or why these fires started?

Well, it would be just guesswork on my part. I know that there's some investigation into it. We were first alerted that it was possibly lightning strikes, but now then we hear otherwise. So we'll wait for the investigators to tell us about that. Right now, we're really concerning with fighting the fire, and we have a catastrophic flood watch that we're under. So that says all that you need to know in the And so we're prepared for that right now. We are still fully evacuated, and we're still hoping that citizens and people that come in, look illuwind, that they stay out. And we're enforcing that because I think that we've already had really bad, and we don't want It's going to get really worse with loss of life.

You mentioned the rain that could be coming. I mean, a lot of people would hear flash flooding, rain, heavy rain, and think, Okay, wait, isn't that good if there are fires? But that's actually not the case, right? Could you explain to people why this combination is really not good?

Yes, absolutely. I mean, anybody that's ever been around a campfire, when you get up the next morning and you see the ashes, if you've ever thrown cold coffee or water on it, you see how it just splashes. The Soil is hydrophobic, so it doesn't take on water. So it just runs right over the top. Gathering steam, it just pulls the ash, the debris with it, and it clogs culverts, takes out bridges. And we had this happen in 2008 with Hurricane Dolly. And so we're told to be expecting the same damage to this storm. And so we've got all the assets, the resources at our disposal, and we're just waiting for the event to happen.

You mentioned the National Guard is there helping and trying to help fight these fires, among other things. Do you believe that you are getting the help that you need from state authorities, other local authorities, and even the federal government? Or do you and your community need more help?

Absolutely. When When this fire kicked off Monday morning, we called an emergency council meeting where we had an emergency declaration. Sent it to the governor's office. She swiftly signed it. Sent it to the President. The President signed off on it today. With that comes resources, allocation of money. We have, of course, the local entities, the county, the surrounding counties, the tri-state area have all been helping. We're getting all kinds of food, water, donations, and we're looking for monetary military donations as well. A lot of those things are helping, but the state, to this point, has been great sending in all the things that we need. Also from the federal, FEMA will be coming in. We have a lot of our delegates coming in to actually view the damage so they can understand just the devastation that we're working with and the severity of the needs that we're going to have in the coming future. We've already started with the recovery efforts, planning, things of that nature. I know that our community, our citizens, are really anxious to get back and look, but I still ask them to please stay away because the danger is still here, and it could intensify later this evening and tomorrow, for sure.

Just trust us, the staff, the people that we've called in to help us They're all experts, and we're doing the best we can, and we're making progress.

Protecting life is, of course, the most important thing. I hope your community there will continue to heat your warnings. Mayor Lynn Crawford from Rio Doso. Thank you so very much for being with us tonight. We wish you and your community the best, and we hope you will stay in touch as this process moves ahead. Thank you, Mayor. We appreciate it.

Absolutely. Thank you, Allison. Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC news app or follow us on social media.