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Monday, May 05, 2008
Firefighters Report Progress on N.M. Wildfires
By Matt Mygatt
Associated Press
Mother Nature sided with firefighters early today as they tried to gain the upper hand on a blaze that has burned 59 homes and more than 21 square miles in central New Mexico's Manzano Mountains.
"The weather — knock on wood — has been cooperating," said Paula Shattuck, a fire information officer.
Calm, cool weather could give way later today to isolated thunderstorms accompanied by wind, she said.
Firefighters toiled with hand tools and bulldozers, beefing up and patrolling lines cleared around the Trigo Fire, which was 50 percent contained at 13,680 acres.
Firefighters also intentionally set fires to burn out any remaining fuel within the lines.
"It would be safe to say we're gaining on it," said Murt Sullivan, another fire information officer.
The human-caused fire began April 15 and has been burning mainly west of the small communities of Manzano and Torreon.
Hundreds of evacuees from Torreon and Tajique — just north of Torreon — were allowed to return to their homes Sunday. A finger of the fire had made a run north and east between the two towns.
Homes of most of the returning evacuees were not damaged by the fire, Sullivan said.
An unknown number of residents in areas west of Torreon were not yet allowed home, including people from the Sherwood Forest subdivision north of the fire boundary, Sullivan said.
There were 809 people assigned to the blaze along with an air tanker, five helicopters, 34 engines, 12 water tenders and four bulldozers.
The fire burned nine homes days after it started, and another 50 were burned last Wednesday when wind gusting to 60 mph blew burning embers about three-quarters of a mile outside containment lines.
The fire had been 95 percent contained at 4,500 acres before the flareup, which forced the evacuations of about 400 people.
Firefighters did all they could when the blaze erupted, said Judith Dyess, another fire information officer.
"Five percent of the line wasn't connected yet because the crews were still working. The winds were so bad, they couldn't fly the aircraft safely. As far as the ground forces, when you have embers and sparks flying over the fire crews' heads, it's very rough," she said. "There's just nothing anybody could have done. The wind was the driver that day."
The fire has been burning tinder-dry oak brush and pinon, juniper and mixed conifer trees on the east side of the Manzanos, where terrain varies from relatively flat lower areas to rugged higher country.
In south-central New Mexico, fire crews spent another day reinforcing containment lines around a 3,860-acre blaze in the Sacramento Mountains on Mescalero Apache land, said Bob Drown, a fire information officer.
"The fire behavior today is more of a smoldering, creeping type of thing with some of the larger fuels still burning on the interior of the line," he said Monday.
"The fire generally has not escaped the outer containment area, but is burning out to it," Drown said.
Today's calm, cool weather could turn windy Tuesday with gusts to 30 mph, he said.
The human-caused South Tularosa Fire began Thursday about two miles southeast of Mescalero. It was 45 percent contained Sunday, Drown said.
There were 468 people assigned to the blaze, along with three air tankers, three helicopters, 18 engines, nine bulldozers and seven water tenders.
The fire has been burning ponderosa pine trees on fairly flat terrain, allowing firefighters to use bulldozers to cut lines around the blaze.
No structures are threatened, Drown said.
Copyright ©2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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