The Hermits Peak / Calf Canyon fire has threatened to annex much more than northern New Mexico – a stunning jump on Tuesday to places that seemed out of reach a few days ago.
Driven by strong winds moving south to north, the insatiable fire is turning its attention to Taos and Colfax counties – putting even more communities ready for evacuation and disappointing 1,800 firefighters and support staff whose best efforts seem unable to make a lasso. fire, which is now over 318 square miles.
Noting that the fire could reach as far as Taos, Angel Fire and Black Lake, Todd Abel, head of the fire incident management team, said that “this fire has enough energy … that these areas will see fire. “
By noon on Tuesday, the escalation of the fire in Taos County required a change in evacuation status, with Angostura’s small community put on “go” status and Rock Wall, Las Mochas and Sipapu moved to “tuning in” – a step away from the mandatory departure .
New Mexico had everything but good luck on the weather front during the crisis, and weather forecasters on Tuesday drew more difficult news: a front moving from the west will take root in eastern New Mexico on Wednesday. bringing storms with potential lightning strikes.
Scott Overpeck, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, said some lightning storms “could cause a new fire”.
While some of these storms may lead to “good rainfall, others may not,” he said. “We don’t know which storms will be dry and which will not.”
Gov. Michel Lujan Grisham hinted at the potential for dry lightning during a briefing on Tuesday morning.
Noting that the Hermit Peak / Calf Canyon fire of 200,000 acres was controlled by only 39 percent and the Cerro Pelado fire of 42,000 acres in the Gemez Mountains was only 11 percent, the governor acknowledged that “we are not getting where we want to be ”in terms of fire control.
Lucian Grisham, who speculates that the cost of rebuilding infrastructure, forests and waterways caused by fires could reach billions, said that once the winds take over the fires, firefighters will be challenged to fight the fires. in every predictable, regular fashion.
While firefighters received some relief from strong winds on Monday, areas around the two major fires remained under the red flag for most of Tuesday. And while the winds could “weaken” over the weekend, the weather forecast for the next few days will offer very little comfort to those affected, Overpeck said.
“There really isn’t much change on this front,” Overpeck said Tuesday. The wind in the Hermits Peak / Calf Canyon Fire area will vary in the range of 20-30 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph over the next two days.
Almost as threatening, humidity levels will remain below 10 percent, he said.
The winds may be less intense in the area around the Cerro Pelado fire, but it will still be “very dry” in the region as firefighters work to stop it from moving to the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the city of Los Alamos.
With strong winds blowing more than a mile, the Hermits Peak / Calf Canyon spot fires have offended firefighters almost from the beginning and continue to do so on Tuesday. The fire accelerated to the Chacon and Guadalupe community, and authorities said they would not stop there.
Firefighters said at least 172 homes had been lost in a fire zone that ranges from Las Vegas, New York, to a few miles north of Mora, though Luyan Grisham said officers could not confirm whether more structures have been damaged or destroyed until they gain safe access to the fire zone.
Nora Myers Saket, a spokesman for the governor, said 277 structures had been destroyed in the blaze.
In some areas, especially in the central and eastern part of the fire zone, people began to return to see their homes – or what was left of them – as power was slowly restored.
But the northern edge of the fire, which caused rising smoke that is easily visible from Santa Fe to Placisas, remains a difficult problem, officials said.
Dave Bales, commander of the fire incident, told a fire briefing Tuesday night: “It’s scary. When you see a puff of smoke like we see today, it’s definitely worrying.”
Meanwhile, crews fighting the Cerro Pelado fire have laid layers of retarder to slow the blaze in some areas, said Mary Chernichek, a spokeswoman for the fire brigade’s command team. More than 870 firefighters are involved.
Crews have pledged to stop the fire from crossing NM 4, she said, and although he skipped another route, she added that fire crews “feel they have this under control quite well”.
She said there were no reports of damaged or destroyed structures or injuries to the fire to date.
Ludjan Grisham again called on residents who do not want to leave the fire zones according to the mandatory evacuation orders to come out. She said it was not worth risking your life to save property.
“It’s risky for a number of reasons,” she said, adding that it could be difficult for emergency workers to reach those residents if they need help later.
She said the fires were moving so fast that if you saw one in your backyard, it could engulf your property in “seconds.”
Last week, Lucan Grisham announced that those affected by the fire could apply for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. As of Tuesday, 184 households had applied for and been approved for the relief, she said. In total, $ 130,000 in these federal funds have been committed, she told a briefing.
She said her office is working to find more resources, including free or cheap temporary housing, for those displaced by the fires.
Asked how much the fire has cost so far in terms of property damage, Lujan Grisham said it was too early to make an assessment.
Deputy State Insurance Director Jennifer Catechis said last Friday: “As for the cost of losses, it’s really early in the process. We have no forecast what this will be. We are not in [fire] zones yet, we can’t go in and make that assessment right now.
“We know how many buildings have burned down; we don’t know exactly what [insurance] the coverage of these buildings was. ”
Myers Sackett said the total government spending on firefighting so far this calendar year is estimated at about $ 40 million. Although the cost of fighting Hermits Peak / Calf Canyon is estimated at $ 50 million so far, she said most of that cost should be covered by federal disaster funding.
Meanwhile, the State Department of the Environment has issued preventive water recommendations for various water systems in San Miguel and Mora counties, urging all users of these outlets to look for an alternative source of drinking water.
Because the Hermits Peak fire, before joining the Calf Canyon fire, was the result of a prescribed burn that went wrong, Lucan Grisham said the federal government must bear much of the cost of the fire.
For now, she said “there will be no prescribed burns in New Mexico” until new guidelines are introduced to ensure that they do not occur in dry and windy conditions.
First, she said, “Let’s control these fires. “It’s horrible, it’s happening.”
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