As a wildfire closes in, New Mexico residents prepare to flee

Chris Castillo throws a freshly cut log as he and his cousins clear a wireline along a family member's home in Las Vegas, N.M., on Monday. Wind-whipped flames are marching across more of New Mexico's tinder-dry mountainsides, forcing the evacuation of area residents. (Cedar Attanasio / AP)

Updated May 2, 2022 at 10:05 PM ET

LAS VEGAS, N.M. — Wind-whipped flames raced across more of New Mexico's pine-covered mountainsides on Monday, closing in on a town of 13,000 people where some residents hurried to pack their cars with belongings, others hustled to clear brush from around their homes, and police were called in to help evacuate the state's psychiatric hospital.