Community Chat

[On It]

On May 17, two lightning strikes started fires in the White Mountain Wilderness of the Lincoln National Forest in Southern New Mexico. They were .5 acres each. The two fires were monitored for several days, but one fire Blue 2 spread to 45 acres. The wind was troublesome and overnight caused the fire to grow to 1100+ acres. Early Friday morning, May 24, I saw this from my front porch. (I had to drastically edit photos. This is the same view I have posted of the horses and elk.)

This first photo shows the ingnition location.

The plume of the fire moving to my right.

On Saturday, the wind struck. We received this notice:

The fire exploded and began moving out of the wilderness area into populated areas. Evacuation protocols were put into place. 

The winds caused a slop-over fire to threaten a populated area. This was issued via emergency systems.

These are some screen shots showing the ever growing fire threat. The first is from a lady's back deck.

Many updates and frustrations were compounded by the arrival of the Memorial Day Weekend crowd. Some estimated it to be 70,000. I know this village of 8000 residents is challenged by the three large summer holidays, but this was a strain like no other.

The fire is currently at 7,100 acres with 0% containment. Over 500 firefighters have arrived from across the country including 8 Hot Shot teams. Air support is able to fly now that the winds have subsided. A management team took control who can coordinate complex fires. They mentioned this incident will continue for several weeks. A base camp for the firefighters is currently being established at the elementary school while command headquarters is housed at our high school.

The people and animals who were evacuated from the fire's path are in Capitan, NM, the home of Smokey Bear. There is no estimate of when the evacuations will be lifted. Resources have arrived to assist them.

The air quality is of concern for me. We have packed a vehicle and can leave at a moment's notice if I begin having issues. So far, we have the air filter going and the A/C off, and both of us are physically fine.

[Kachina624]

@On It.  Being near Albuquerque,  I of course have been hearing all the fire reports (it's been very smokey here) and thought about you but it sounded like the fire was some distance from town.  Glad to hear you're still safe but prepared to go if necessary.  You're lucky to have a place to which you could evacuate.  I bet the air quality is really rank in your area.

There's also a wildfire burning North of Santa Fe so I'm between the two and probably getting smoke from both.  It's going to be one heck of a summer; wish we were closer to October.

Stay safe and don't hesitate to flee.

Some people may not realize you're in South Central New Mexico in the mountains.

[Coastalcarolina]

So very sorry that you are dealing with this.  Very frightening and it can happen anywhere it seems, if conditions are right.

Stay safe🙏.

[NEvans2]

@On It  Please stay safe! It hurts my heart to see and hear about these wildfires that so much of the country is experiencing.💔

[cheriere]

@On It 

That must be so scary to receive weather and warnings like you did.  Thank you for sharing this with us.❤️❤️❤️

[GingerHead]

@On It 

Oh boy! That is terrible that all the beautiful greenery and trees are burnt and burning! Hopefully your property and home won't be threatened. Please stay safe, like others have said!

We just got back from visiting family in NM, (Farmington, Bloomfield, Aztec/ way up North of the state) and wasn't aware of the fires.

Here in the PNW, we've dealt with terrible wildfires for the last couple of years along with the terrible devastation and bad air quality and sadly it will probably get worse with global warming.

[Pezzie]

@On It Stay safe and don't hesitate to evacuate.  Keep us updated, please.

[Desertdi]

14,000 acres burning since May 18 in the "Wildcat" fire in the Tonto National Forest just north of Scottsdale, AZ...     

[SaveTheTurtles]

It's always hard to hear and see these wildfires. Very scary. Be safe out there.

[Lilysmom1]

@On It , this is the one year anniversary of the Tantallon wildfires.  At the same time, wildfires began in Southwest Nova Scotia.  Tantallon is a densely populated bedroom community of our Capital city Halifax and very close to where I live.  969 hectares and 150 homes burned to the ground.  We also had a close call which the water bombers were diverted to knock down.  Had they not already been air borne dealing with the Tantallon fire, it would have been much worse for my community.  We all had go backs packed but nowhere to go as our main exit was closed.

SW Nova fires took more than 23,000 hectares in rural Nova Scotia and 50 homes.  It is the largest fire in our Provinces history.

A backyard fire started the Tantallon fire.

To drive through the burned out remains of the subdivisions in Tantallon was very eerie.  The very good news was that there was no loss of human life.  Many lost their pets in the evacuation.  They were not allowed back in to rescue them.

My brother in British Columbia deals with high risk of fire every year.  It has become very real for us here too.