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Smoke rolled from the bosque across Paseo del Norte on Saturday afternoon after a two-acre fire ignited and consumed salt cedars and grasses right up to the riverbank.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, according to a spokesman from the Bernalillo County Fire Department, but it was 100 percent contained by 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Twenty county firefighters from four stations moved quickly to extinguish the blaze, which broke out south of Paseo del Norte on the west bank of the Rio Grande. Eastbound Paseo del Norte was closed on the bridge for a couple of hours as crews tackled the fire.
Albuquerque police could be heard late Saturday afternoon on a police scanner tracking a “suspicious” vehicle in the bosque near where the fire broke out, even calling in air support to try and find people who could have been responsible for the fire.
BCFD spokesman Larry Gallegos said the department has focused much of its forest-thinning efforts this spring on the East Mountains, where forest fires have the potential to wreak havoc on homes and other structures that sit amid dry trees and grasses.
However, Gallegos said Saturday’s bosque fire, which stayed small thanks in large part to light winds and a quick firefighter response, shows the high potential for forest fires this summer.
“This one is expected to be a very scary one, because it is very dry,” Gallegos said, adding that bosque users need to be vigilant in calling in fires the moment they see them. “The public is going to see these things before anyone. …Always we want the eyes and ears of the residents to alert us.”
— This article appeared on page B8 of the Albuquerque Journal
Garrett Vena, left, Patrick Rhinehart and Ford Parker watch from the Paseo del Norte bridge as smoke rises from a two-acre bosque fire Saturday. The fire was quickly contained. (Greg Sorber/Journal)
-- Email the reporter at plohmann@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3943
