More than 500 firefighters are battling the blaze that resulted from the merger earlier this week of two lightning-sparked fires. Fire officials say nearly all of the growth has come in recent days due to relentless winds.

The blaze has destroyed 12 cabins and seven small outbuildings, and the privately owned ghost town of Mogollon was placed under a voluntary evacuation order.

The strong winds pushed ash from the blaze 35 to 40 miles away, while smoke from the giant fire spread across the state and into Arizona. The haze blocked views of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque, and a smell of smoke permeated the air throughout northern New Mexico.

Health officials as far away as Albuquerque and Santa Fe issued alerts for the holiday weekend, advising people to limit outdoor activities, keep windows closed.

They said the effects on most people would be minor but noted mild throat and eye irritation or allergy-like symptoms could be expected. Officials warned people with heart and lung conditions to be especially diligent in minimizing their exposure to the smoky air.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, officials said heavy air tankers and thousands of firefighters were on standby Friday as fire managers kept a close watch on high winds and hot temperatures at the start of Memorial Day weekend. Fire danger remains high in the southern Colorado foothills and the South Park area.

Two heavy air tankers have been taken to Grand Junction in western Colorado, where the fire danger is highest, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Steve Segin said.

“We’ve got the resources. We’ve got the firefighters,” Segin said. “We’re ready.”

The National Weather Service said wind gusts could reach 70 mph Saturday in some western Colorado valleys, with sustained winds of 25 to 40 mph. Most of eastern Colorado also was under a high-wind watch, with sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts up to 55 mph possible Saturday.

In Southern California, firefighters worked to corral a wildfire that has chewed through 3,100 acres of tinder-dry grass and light brush since it broke out Thursday afternoon east of Julian.

On Friday, the fire forced about 50 people to evacuate an RV park in San Diego County. It earlier prompted the evacuation of about 100 homes in the Shelter Valley area, but residents were allowed to return late Thursday.

The fire was 20 percent contained, said Nick Schuler, battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. No injuries or damage to structures were reported.

In Arizona, residents of the historic mining town of Crown King were allowed to return home after being evacuated because of a wildfire about 85 miles north of Phoenix. The fire started May 13 and has burned more than 16,000 acres. It is 35 percent contained, fire officials said.

In Nevada, questions were being raised over fire crews’ initial response to a backyard burn that rekindled two days later, destroying two homes in a rural community and scorching 7,500 acres.

A 911 recording obtained by The Associated Press showed a resident called Sunday to report that a neighbor’s permitted burn in the Topaz Ranch Estates was out of control. Volunteer firefighters with the East Fork Fire Protection District arrived at the scene and then left, apparently without extinguishing the blaze.

Gusty winds rekindled the fire Tuesday, and it spread quickly through thick brush and dry grasses. Two homes and 17 outbuildings were destroyed.

District Fire Chief Tod Carlini did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Friday.

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Associated Press writers Rema Rahman in Denver and Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., contributed to this report.

Two lightning-sparked fires merged Wednesday to form the giant Gila Wilderness blaze, which has destroyed 12 cabins and seven small outbuildings. The Baldy fire was first spotted May 9 and the Whitewater blaze was sparked May 16, but nearly all of the growth has come in recent days due to relentless winds.

The strong winds pushed ash from the blaze 35 to 40 miles away, while smoke from the giant fire spread across the state and into Arizona. The haze blocked views of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque, and a smell of smoke permeated the air throughout northern New Mexico.

Health officials in Albuquerque and Santa Fe issued alerts for the holiday weekend, advising people to limit outdoor activities, keep windows closed and avoid swamp coolers.

They said the effects on most people would be minor but noted mild throat and eye irritation or allergy-like symptoms could be expected. Officials warned people with heart and lung conditions to be especially diligent in minimizing their exposure to the smoky air.

Meanwhile, in Colorado, officials said heavy air tankers and thousands of firefighters were on standby Friday as fire managers kept a close watch on high winds and hot temperatures at the start of the Memorial Day weekend. Fire danger remains high in the southern Colorado foothills and the South Park area.

Two heavy air tankers have been taken to Grand Junction in western Colorado, the area where the fire danger is highest in the state, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Steve Segin said.

“We’ve got the resources, we’ve got the firefighters. We’re ready,” Segin said.

Most of eastern Colorado was under a high wind watch, with sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts up to 55 mph possible Saturday.

In Southern California, firefighters worked to corral a wildfire that has chewed through 2,500 acres of tinder-dry grass and light brush since it broke out Thursday afternoon east of Julian.

On Friday, the fire forced about 50 people to evacuate an RV park in San Diego County. It earlier prompted the evacuation of about 100 homes in the Shelter Valley area, but residents were allowed to return late Thursday.

The fire was 20 percent contained, said Nick Schuler, battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. No injuries or damage to structures were reported.

In Arizona, residents of the historic mining town of Crown King were allowed to return home after being evacuated because of a wildfire about 85 miles north of Phoenix. The fire started May 13 and has burned more than 16,000 acres. It is 35 percent contained, fire officials said.

In Nevada, questions are being raised over fire crews’ initial response to a backyard burn that rekindled two days later, destroyed two homes in the Topaz Ranch Estates, a rural Nevada community, and scorched 7,500 acres. A 911 recording obtained by The Associated Press showed that a resident called about the fire Sunday by residents said volunteer firefighters with the East Fork Fire Protection District arrived at the scene and then left, apparently without extinguishing the fire.

The massive New Mexico blaze was being battled by more than 500 firefighters, but winds and erratic flames forced them to sit on the sidelines Thursday.

“We put into place a strategy to corral the slow-moving fire at ridge tops and natural rock cliffs soon after the Incident Commander John Pierson reported firefighters experiencing extremely hazardous conditions,” Forest Supervisor Kelly Russell said. “The risk presented to firefighters outweighed the benefits of immediate and aggressive suppression given the fire is burning on slopes (upward) of 75 percent.”

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Associated Press Reporters Rema Rahman in Denver and Sandra Chereb in Carson City, Nev., contributed to this report.

But don’t let that spoil the party.

In Houston, ballet folklorico dancers will ring in Cinco de Mayo by stomping to traditional Mexican music in a city park. New York City will close parts of Spanish Harlem and Queens for street fairs as Mexican flags flap from apartment fire escapes and car antennas. Albuquerque honors the day with a Mariachi concert and free cab rides for those who show their love for Mexico with a little too much Dos Equis XX or tequila. Even West Des Moines, Iowa, has an all-day festival with Mexican food, artwork and live music.

The holiday has spread from the American Southwest, even though most are unaware of its original ties to the U.S. Civil War, abolition and promotion of civil rights for blacks.

Often mistaken for Mexican Independence Day (that’s Sept. 16), Cinco de Mayo commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla between the victorious ragtag army of largely Mexican Indian soldiers against the invading French forces of Napoleon III. Mexican Americans, during the Chicano Movement of the 1970s, adopted the holiday for its David vs. Goliath storyline as motivation for civil rights struggles in Texas and California.

Over the years, the holiday has been adopted by beer companies as a way to penetrate the growing Latino market, even as the historical origins of the holiday remain largely forgotten.

David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of medicine and health services at UCLA and author of the newly released “El Cinco de Mayo: An American Tradition,” said the holiday’s history in the U.S. goes back to the Gold Rush when thousands of immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America came to California during the Civil War.

According to Spanish-language newspapers at the time, this first group of multinational Latinos on U.S. soil identified with the Union Army’s fight against the Confederacy and often wrote pieces about the evils of slavery. Hayes-Bautista said these Latino immigrants were concerned about the Union’s lack of progress and Napoleon III’s interests in helping the South.

“It wasn’t until the news came about the Battle of Puebla that they got the good news they wanted,” said Hayes-Bautista. “Since Napoleon III was linked to the Confederacy, they saw the victory as the first sign that their side could win.”

They didn’t, of course, at least not for a few years. French forces took over Mexico after the Battle of Puebla, and installed Habsburg Archduke Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico. He was captured by Mexican forces five years later and put to death.

But in the years that followed, Latinos in California and the U.S. Northwest celebrated Cinco de Mayo with parades of people dressed in Civil War uniforms and gave speeches about the significance of the Battle of Puebla in the larger struggle for abolition, said Hayes-Bautista.

The Cinco de Mayo-Civil War link remained until the Mexican Revolution, which sparked another wave of Mexican immigration to the U.S. Those immigrants had no connection to Cinco de Mayo — except that U.S. Latinos celebrated it.

“That’s when it became about David vs. Goliath, Indians beating a European force, and it took on a new meaning,” said Hayes-Bautista. “The Civil War ties disappeared.”

The date received another jolt during World War II during the U.S. government’s “Good Neighborhood Policy” aimed at building good relationships with Mexico and during the Chicano Movement, when Mexican American activists adopted the day to reinforce civil rights demands. Two police beatings of Cinco de Mayo revelers — one in Houston in 1978 and the other in Washington DC in 1991 — resulted in riots and sparked protests and calls for reforms from Latino advocates.

The holiday spread outside of the American Southwest as more Latinos moved to new areas around the country. Alyssa Gutierrez, 35, a teacher who is originally from Robstown, Texas but now lives in New York’s Harlem neighborhood, said Cinco de Mayo was barely noticed when she moved to New York in 1998. “Now there are Mexican restaurants on almost every block and all do something on Cinco de Mayo, usually around a boxing match,” said Gutierrez.

Jody Agius Vallejo, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California and author of “Barrios to Burbs: The Making of the Mexican-American Middle Class,” said Cinco de Mayo is now used by assimilated Mexican Americans as an easy way for them to showcase their ethnic identity.

“It’s very similar to how Irish-Americans celebrate St. Patrick’s Day,” said Vallejo. “One way they can honor their ethnicity is to celebrate this day, even when most don’t know why.”

But not all buy in. “To others,” she added, “this holiday is kind of viewed as a joke because they feel it’s their culture that is being appropriated and exploited.”

Hayes-Bautista said because the theme and focus around Cinco de Mayo has transformed a number of times, it won’t be surprising if it changes again.

“No one has owned Cinco de Mayo,” said Hayes-Bautista. “And no one ever will.”

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Follow Russell Contreras at http://twitter.com/russcontreras.

Palynologists, or pollen experts, now have the ability to compare microscopic pollen samples to determine where the material originated. Among other things, they have identified pollen grains trapped in illegal drug shipments to help federal authorities against drug traffickers.

The victim found in New York was believed to be 13 to 19 years old when she was shot, pulled into a cornfield, shot again, and stripped of any identification. A farmer discovered her body in November 1979 while checking his fields off Route 20 in Caledonia, N.Y., about 20 miles south of Rochester.

The woman was described as 5 feet 3 inches tall, weighing about 120 pounds with brown eyes and brown frosted hair. She also had a bikini tan line and was wearing a red nylon-lined wind breaker made by Auto Sports Inc.

Authorities have received hundreds of tips and tracked more than 10,000 leads across the U.S., Europe, Mexico and elsewhere. But no arrests have been made.

John York, the first investigator on the scene in 1979 who is now the Livingston County sheriff, reopened the case and believes the new discovery might yield clues to help solve the case.

Dougherty said the body was recently exhumed to pull DNA evidence and send the information to a new national database. That’s when the pollen was discovered thanks to a forensic study by Texas A&M University, he said.

Soon after the pollen discovery, authorities contacted Rich Lewis, a detective with the cold case unit of the Albuquerque Police Department. Lewis visited American Indian jewelers who told him that, according to photos, the jewelry found on the woman was likely replicas of Native American turquoise and silver jewelry.

“So this stuff could have been purchased anywhere, even made from a kit,” said Lewis. “Or it could have been made by hippies in northern New Mexico, which was very common at the time. We just don’t know.”

Still, Lewis said investigators have an obligation to re-examine the case, especially because of the new evidence that points to the Southwest.

Lewis said he doesn’t believe the woman was homeless or forgotten based on the new evidence.

“She was somebody who had a life,” he said. “And someone is missing her.”

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Follow Russell Contreras on twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras.