'We are very grateful': Ruidoso couple thankful for shelter in Roswell

ROSWELL — There are several places across New Mexico that are offering their resources to help displaced families from the South Fork and Salt fires.

One of those venues is the Encanto Event Center in Roswell.

The facility was preparing to host an event Tuesday night when the fires broke out in and around Ruidoso on Monday.

"This was not planned," co-owner Sergio Jimenez said.

Jimenez said he admits he did not know what to expect when the evacuees started coming to the center.

"This literally hit me hard — physically, mentally, every aspect that you can possibly think of," he said. "Because their faces, when they walked in that door, were faces I have never seen before."

Jimenez said the event center has since become "kind of like a first point for people who come into town."

The 24-hour facility offers a place to pick up food, toiletries and clothes.

Jimenez said he is accepting anything from granola bars to water. "We're taking everything," he said. "Whatever your heart tells you to bring, that's what we'll (take)."

In addition, it has a dining area for people to enjoy a meal and "little sleeping areas" that can fit several family members.

"It gives them a little bit of privacy," Jimenez said.

The living quarters are what people like Lorena Bustos and her husband, Xavier Gonzalez, said they needed after evacuating from their home in Ruidoso late Monday afternoon. They said they originally went to a gas station for a couple of hours before staying at the Eastern New Mexico Fairgrounds early Tuesday. They arrived at Encanto later that day.

"We are very grateful," Bustos said.

She said the facility has everything they need.

It also has "an air mattress," Gonzalez said.

Regardless of what the shelter offers, Bustos said, "Our main things are our kids and having a place to sleep."

If there is not enough room to house people, Jimenez will continue to help people.

"I will find you a place, and I will send you off with all your necessities," he said.