Firefighters in southern New Mexico scrambled to contain a fast-spreading brush fire that had burned five homes by Monday evening, a state forestry spokesman said. Winds gusting up to 50 mph spread the fire from 50 acres early Monday to 500 to 1,000 acres by nightfall, according to Dan Ware, a spokesman for the New Mexico State Forestry Division. Those winds made efforts to attack the blaze by air impossible, he said. The flames were pushing into a neighborhood in Silver City, about 230 miles south of Albuquerque.