Firefighters Battle Blazes in Central and Southern N.M.
Associated Press
Crews were taking advantage of precipitation and cooler temperatures Thursday to establish fire lines around a blaze that has burned an estimated 650 acres in rugged, steep terrain of the Manzano Mountains in central New Mexico.
The U.S. Forest Service listed the Trigo Fire as 16 percent contained at midday Thursday.
Meanwhile, state officials lifted the evacuations that had been ordered for homes near a wind-driven fire that has burned around 850 acres along the Rio Grande in south-central New Mexico near San Antonio, south of Socorro.
A third blaze, a 300-acre fire in southern New Mexico near Weed, was 50 percent contained Thursday afternoon.
The Trigo Fire on the west side of the Manzano Mountains west of Torreon was burning southeast of Capilla Peak and forced the closure of the Capilla Peak lookout.
No evacuations had been ordered for the homes that dot the area, but Cibola National Forest officials urged residents in the eastern Manzanos to have important papers, photographs, prescriptions and pets readily available in case they have to leave.
Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which started Tuesday. "It's certainly suspicious,'' fire information officer Arlene Perea said.
Some 335 people, including six hotshot crews and an inmate work crew, were assigned to the fire. They were aided by helicopters, engines and water tankers.
Drops of fire retardant on Wednesday slowed the progress of the flames, but high winds in the evening pushed the fire toward Osha Peak, increasing the acreage significantly. The blaze was burning in oak brush and pinon, juniper and ponderosa pine.
State Forestry Division spokesman Dan Ware announced Thursday that evacuations were lifted for about a dozen homes south of U.S. 380 near the San Pedro Fire in south-central New Mexico. Officials had lifted evacuations for homes north of the highway Wednesday night.
The blaze burned an abandoned home Wednesday. Ware said firefighters were unable to protect it because the yard had brush, roof shingles and abandoned cars to fuel the fire.
"It's such a prime example of how defensible space could keep homes from being destroyed,'' he said.
The fire seven to eight miles from Weed, dubbed the Pepper Fire, was about a mile from an empty barn that could be in trouble if the wind changes, said fire information officer Laura Polant in Cloudcroft.
Lincoln National Forest officials earlier reported two houses were threatened, but a better look discovered one was the barn and the other was not as close to the flames as feared, she said.
Air tankers have dropped fire retardant on the blaze, which started Wednesday southwest of Weed in the Sacramento Mountains and was burning in mixed conifer.
The cause isn't known.
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