New Mexico ? High winds grounded air tankers and fanned the flames of a wildfire Sunday, sending it racing between two towns where hundreds of residents had ignored suggestions to evacuate. No one was reported injured.

Residents of about 130 homes in the towns of Manzano and Torreon, near the Manzano Mountains southeast of Albuquerque, had been asked to leave, said Torrance County Emergency Manager John Cordova. He called the threat “severe.”

Even so, not many people in Manzano left their homes, said Deanna Younger, a fire information officer.

“They were standing there right in the middle of town watching it go past the town. It was a few miles away,” Younger said Sunday evening.

Any danger from the head of the fire has passed, Younger said, adding that gusty winds could still send the blaze north toward Torreon.

Windy conditions were forecast for the next few days.

The fire started Tuesday, threatening communication towers and a University of New Mexico observatory. Investigators are looking into the cause, which was deemed “suspicious.”