Wyoming smokejumper critically injured in New Mexico

BILLINGS (AP) — Officials in Montana have released the name of a wildland firefighter who was critically injured while fighting a fire on private land in southwestern New Mexico, near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Tim Hart of Cody, Wyoming, was injured Monday following a hard landing after parachuting into rocky terrain in the Animas Mountains, said Marna Daley, a spokesperson for the Custer Gallatin National Forest in Montana.

"The Forest Service's first priority is to provide for him and his family right now," Daley told the Billings Gazette on Wednesday.

Hart, a three-year member of a Hotshot crew based in West Yellowstone, Montana, was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday in El Paso, Texas, the Forest Service said.

The fire was burning in rugged terrain along the Continental Divide and its cause was under investigation, the U.S. Forest Service said.