Hundreds of residents of Las Vegas, New Mexico's ancient capital, were ordered to evacuate Monday as powerful winds and drought pushed the country's largest active wildfire closer to town.

The fire has charred almost 49,000 hectares, or more than half the area of New York City, destroying centuries-old communities and vacation homes in forested mountains 48 kilometers northeast of Santa Fe.

The fire is the most destructive of a dozen blazes raging throughout the Southwest, which scientists attribute to climate change, spreading and coming earlier this year.

Families filled trucks with boxes of photos and antiques and put cattle onto trailers in northwest Las Vegas, heeding police orders to evacuate the region.

David Lopez, 31, remained to defend his family's two trailer homes, soaking the dirt with a hose and brushing away dead grass to form a fire break.

"This is all I have - I worked really hard for it," the 31-year-old technician explained, adding that he intended to flee once flames approached him within a quarter-mile.

By late afternoon, winds had died down, halting the fire and preventing additional evacuations in the 14,000-person metropolis.

"We didn't have that big hard push into Las Vegas proper," Incident Commander Dave Bales explained at a briefing.

Tuesday's forecast called for a northerly wind shift, directing flames toward the villages of Mora and Cleveland, which are at the epicenter of a 20-mile-long conflagration that is already the third-largest in New Mexico history.

However, winds were anticipated to shift on Wednesday, blowing the fire back toward Las Vegas, a cycle that would last until Saturday.

"It's kind of a waiting game, we're at the mercy of the weather," San Miguel County Manager Joy Ansley explained.

Since April 6, the fire has damaged hundreds of structures and prompted the evacuation of dozens of villages, although no fatalities have been reported.