The unidentified skeletal remains of a person were found in the driver’s seat of a burned out car, New Mexico state police reported on Wednesday. Another victim was identified as 60-year-old Patrick Pearson.

New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham told reporters around 500 homes were thought to be among the more than 1,400 buildings razed by the two blazes, making it one of the most destructive wildfires in state history.

The forest area around 217km southeast of Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city, has suffered a string of wildfires, including one that killed two people in 2022.

Lujan Grisham on Wednesday requested a major disaster declaration from President Joe Biden for the South Fork and Salt fires, which have burned over 9,308 hectares to the north and south of Ruidoso.

New Mexico is caught in a decades-long drought that has made wildfires more destructive and faster moving.

In 2022 the state suffered the largest blaze in the continental US which burned over 138,000 hectares.