Credit unions operating all week in New Mexico's wildfire zonereported Thursday they are still dealing with smoky lobbies butalso fielding a mounting number of requests for loan waivers andother forms of financial relief as mop-up concludes on the LittleBear fire.

For one, the $255 million Otero FCU of Alamogordo, whose Ruidosobranch was not directly in the fire path, said it has beenconcentrating on providing needed supplies and food to homeless andmaking donations to hard-pressed firefighter and National Guardcrews.,

“Just yesterday we emptied out Walmart of all their non-meltingPayday bars plus we had 200 rolls of chapstick and cartloads ofwater we've donated to the fire teams still on the line,” said GregShaver, vice president of marketing.