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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Residents Evaluate Fire Damage

By Laura Nesbitt And Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
      Alex Trevino was devastated when he heard the Trigo Fire had burned his home to the ground.
       “I felt like putting a bullet into my head” after hearing the news, Trevino said.
       Trevino found out his home was lost in the fire on Sunday from his neighbor's son, who had been allowed to go back into the Sherwood Forest area in the Manzanos where Trevino lived.
       As of Wednesday morning the Trigo Fire, which began on April 15, had burned a total of 13,680 acres and was 60 percent contained. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
       The Sherwood Forest subdivision remained closed until Tuesday afternoon due to continued fire activity, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
       A contractor by trade, Trevino was building his home by himself. It was completely paid for and just about finished — but he had no insurance.
       Because the fire was burning in rough terrain, Trevino — who worked as a firefighter in Washington state — said he was surprised that officials had downgraded their management of the fire on April 29, even though it was estimated at 95 percent containment.
       The next day high winds caused the fire, which had already burned 4,832 acres, to jump containment lines — just as the Type 2 Incident Management Team was officially handing over management of the fire to a Type 3 team. On May 1 at 6 p.m. a Type 1 team took over.
       Karen Takai, a fire information officer for the Sandia Ranger District, said it isn't likely the firefighters could have contained the fire, given the conditions they were facing.
       “You're always going to have an ember,” Takai said. “It doesn't matter how many fuel breaks you put in, if you've got that one ember you've got a fire.”
       Torrance County Emergency Manager John Cordova was on hand at a fire update meeting on Monday at the Estancia Community Center, a shelter for the American Red Cross since May 1.
       “We're looking at other grants to see if we can help people out,” Cordova said.
       There were 59 homes destroyed in the fire, according fire information officer Francisco Lueras. But Cordova said the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not likely help those whose homes were destroyed because only 12 to 15 of those were primary residences, with the rest most likely being vacation homes.
       “It doesn't fit into the category that FEMA will help,” Cordova said.
       He said he is working on creating a disaster relief organization to help people rebuild.
       “We're not going to just walk away from people who lost their homes,” he said.
       The Sherwood Forest area was opened for residents to return, but on Monday many residents still did not know if they had houses left.
       Raimund Carrillo Jr. said he was concerned about a family vacation home where his father and his nieces and nephews could go to “enjoy the peace and quiet,” he said.
       He said the brushes and trees were cleared out around the cabin, but still wasn't convinced his home was safe.
       “When you see 300-foot flames, sometimes it doesn't matter how much you clear,” he said.
       Another resident of the Sherwood Forest area at the meeting, who would not give his name, said he was concerned about police entering his home illegally.
       In the Tajique area sheriff's deputies entered a rental home and found a total of 70 marijuana plants on Saturday, said Sgt. Kenneth Groves. He said deputies followed proper procedures.
       “We received a call from dispatch about suspicious activity in the area,” Groves said which caused concern because of reports of looting in the area.
       When deputies arrived, there were “items left in the driveway” and the front door was partially opened, Groves said.
       “There appeared to be a cut lock lying on the front porch. As we walked around we observed what appeared to be marijuana plants in the windows,” Groves said.
       Groves said deputies then did a “cursory sweep” of the home.
       “We didn't want to violate or take anything from the residence,” Groves said.
       Deputies then contacted the Region 1 Drug Task Force and obtained a search warrant.
       At a 2008 New Mexico Fire Season Outlook meeting for the media at the Sandia Ranger District office on Friday, a presentation by meteorologist Chuck Maxwell called for a drought in the East Mountain and Torrance County area to either persist or intensify over the summer.
       Fire information officer Murt Sullivan drove to Capilla Peak on Sunday to assess the damage. On Forest Road 245 Sullivan found a graveyard of trees extended almost to the peak.
       The pine needles on the trees and ground had been “baked into position” by the extremely hot winds of the fire, the air was thick with smoke and the only sound was two air attack planes monitoring the area.
       Sullivan said it would take hundreds of years for the forest to return.
   

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