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If Albuquerque residents notice a plume of smoke in the southeast corner of the city in the coming days, it’s not a wildfire, but rather a prescribed burn from Kirtland Air Force Base to reduce foliage that could potentially fuel wildfires.
Starting Wednesday and lasting a week, Kirtland plans to conduct prescribed burns, weather permitting. Typically, Kirtland carries out burns from October through March to ensure safe burns.
Residents living near Juan Tabo, Juan Tabo Hills West and Four Hills are the most likely to be impacted.
“On the Kirtland side of things, it’s just open space, but those areas tend to collect a lot of things that if we don’t preemptively take care, we could potentially be looking at things that could accelerate wildfires,” said Robert Smith, chief of media relations at Kirtland. “If a wildfire did start, it has lots of open space to just go do whatever it wants, so this is why we do this stuff.”
Kirtland firefighters will be on the scene to ensure a safe and proper burn and expect to focus on overgrown tall grass, shrubbery, piñon and juniper.
“We have all the experts out there to really do their best to maintain this and make it a contained fire,” Smith said. “We have a window, and if the temperature and wind direction and wind gusts aren’t all exactly where we need them to be, we won’t even do it.”
