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A wildfire ignited near Chimayó and La Puebla at 3:45 p.m. Friday and is threatening nearby structures, according to a State Forestry spokesman.
The cause, acreage and containment are not yet known, said spokesman Dan Ware, and the fire is primarily moving its way through cottonwoods trees and “understory” vegetation like Russian olive and tamarisk. No one has been evacuated.
This is the second recorded wildfire since the beginning of the year. The first, near Capitan, scorched more than 150 acres within an hour March 12 after a faulty catalytic converter sent a spark into dry grasslands. Moisture from weekend snow played a large part in preventing the fire from reaching a scrub of nearby pinon junipers.
Check ABQjournal.com for updates.
Fleck revisits John Wesley Powell’s visit to New Mexico in the 1880s, when he walked across a dry Rio Grande. There will be a classic old black-and-white of the bearded founder of the US Geological Survey, the guy who first warned us about drought.
