JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: The wildfire that roared out of control in Los Alamos, New Mexico, has now been about 45 percent contained. It has shifted away from the town and is moving toward uninhabited forest land. CNN's Jim Hill is at a firefighters' camp in Espanola with the latest -- Jim.</s>JIM HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jeanne, the so-called Cerro Grande fire is burning to the north and the west of Los Alamos, as you say, away from populated areas. It has now grown to just shy of 47,000 acres, about 1,000 firefighters are battling this blaze, and have been for the better part of the time since it broke out May 4 from a prescribed burn, an accident, if you will. Now this fire is burning in the elevations of 8,000 and 9,000 feet now in some very heavy timber, ponderosa pine, pinion, and oak woodland vegetation. This the dry because New Mexico has just recorded perhaps its driest winter on record. So these are very good conditions, if you are a fire, very bad conditions if you are a firefighter. Nonetheless, about 45 percent containment has been made so far. In the town of Los Alamos, where 20,000 people were evacuated, many of those people are being told they can return to their homes. However, 235 homes were destroyed and many people in those hard hit neighborhoods are still being told to stay away. At the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the birth place of the atomic bomb, officials are reiterating that the nuclear materials stored there were not affected by the fire. There were about 7700 acres of laboratory land that were burned, and a few structures, but officials say, there was no radiation released into the atmosphere. I'm Jim Hill, CNN, reporting live from Espanola, New Mexico.
New Mexico Fires: Blaze 45 Percent Contained, Moving Toward Uninhabited Forest Land