'Ruidoso can't stand much more of this': Man loses home and business he owns with brother to South Fork Fire

RUIDOSO — Dave Anderson said he is pondering his future in this village after losing his second home to a fire in about a decade.

On Wednesday morning, Anderson, 71, was looking at what was left of his 700-square-foot, one-bedroom and one-bathroom home in Alto Crest.

Surrounding the foundation, a torn-up fence and other pieces of his property were rocks he piled up to as high as 7 or 8 feet in spots about a year ago to shield his house from fires.

“I put 40 tons of rocks around the house,” he said. “I thought I would be well-protected.”

Near the house were the incinerated remnants of a copper 2019 Chevrolet Equinox.

“Golly, look at that,” he said. “There is absolutely nothing left.”

Anderson said he was standing atop a hill near his house on June 17 when he saw a ball of fire a few miles away moving in his direction.

“I had 10 minutes to get out,” he said. “It came so fast.”

Anderson packed up his “go bag,” which consists of food and clothing, took his 8-year-old Australian kelpie, Sadie, and left. After spending a night in his pickup in Capitan, he stayed with people in the Benito Lake area.

Anderson believes his house burned down on the day he evacuated. He said he got a “semi heads-up” about it from a friend who texted Anderson pictures of the burned property.

“How much damage can you take?” he said. “It’s just overwhelming.”

He said he did not cry, however, because “I have been through this before.”

In 2012, Anderson lost another home in Ruidoso during the Little Bear Fire that, according to the U.S. Forest Service, destroyed 242 homes.

“Ruidoso can’t stand much more of this,” he said. “It’s very disheartening when you lose a third of your town every other year.”

Anderson not only lost a home this time, but he and his 76-year-old brother Ron Anderson lost their nearby business, Wild West Ski Shop, which also included storage units. The ski shop’s roadside sign survived unscathed.

“I can’t believe that thing didn’t even get the sign,” Ron said. “(But) I’m glad we’re all safe, and that’s all that matters. We lost a lot of stuff, but there are people who are dealing with a lot worse than us.”

Dave said he came to Ruidoso from North Carolina in 1975 because of the weather and plethora of outdoor activities. Ron moved from Aspen, Colorado, in the early 1970s, to open up his own ski business, which he did with Wild West in 1979.

That was Ron’s dream, Dave said.

On Tuesday, Dave said he let customers come to the storage units to see what was left, but everything was destroyed. Some cried — including himself, he admitted — while others were just looking at their charred possessions.

The Anderson brothers examined the damage and are talking with insurance agents as they figure out what is next.

“I’ve been thinking about moving anyway,” Dave said. “This (was) just the cream on top.”

Dave said a lady recently told him that Ruidoso will be back to what it was one day.

“I said, ‘It will be back, but not in my lifetime.’”