A year after wildfire, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham estimates 600 residents still lack permanent home

SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is spending a few nights in a trailer last week to call attention to the hundreds of New Mexicans still without a permanent home following the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire.

In a written statement, she estimated 600 residents of San Miguel and Mora counties lack a permanent home a year after the fire was contained. Some cannot even return to their land because fire damage made it inaccessible.

Lujan Grisham also issued a letter last week asking Attorney General Raúl Torrez to investigate allegations that some lawyers and other individuals are falsely representing themselves as affiliated with the federal Claims Office, which was established to provide compensation to fire victims.

The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire began last year as two prescribed burns started by the U.S. Forest Service. They escaped control and merged into the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history, burning 534 squares miles.

Federal legislation established a Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Claims Office backed by $3.95 billion in funding for fire victims.

Lujan Grisham said she is spending three nights in a portable trailer last week in Mora as she meets with residents.

Fire victims have “spent countless hours waiting in lines and filling out paperwork, often with minimal or no result,” she said in a written statement. “These federal processes frankly do not work for Americans reeling from the aftermath of natural disasters. The federal government must do better.”

Officials at the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Claims Office say they are moving as quickly as possible to provide compensation. They established a staff of claims “navigators” who are supposed to guide fire victims through the compensation process.

The governor also took aim at private attorneys. In a letter to the attorney general, she asked him to investigate reports of lawyers misleading clients or interfering with claims.

“It is imperative that we send a strong message that these deceptive practices will not be tolerated within our State,” Lujan Grisham said in a written statement.

Attorneys who represent fire victims, by contrast, have repeatedly faulted the federal government for moving too slowly to compensate victims and failing to authorize payouts for certain damages.

Antonia Roybal-Mack, an attorney who grew up in Mora and has sued the U.S. Forest Service in connection with the fire, said she can’t comment on how other lawyers handle their cases.

But “I can attest our firm is not engaged in these things the governor mentioned,” she said. “I applaud the governor for looking out for fraud and abuse in this process.”