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Thursday, April 24, 2008
Trigo Fire Reaches 37% Containment
By Laura Nesbitt and Lee Ross /
Mountain View Telegraph
Although the Trigo fire was at 36 percent containment Sunday and significant progress was expected, about 20 firefighters battling the blaze Monday afternoon felt “helpless” as they sat at the Manzano Mountain Retreat off N.M. 55.
“The only real way of getting to it is by air. We’re sitting maybe about a quarter-mile away. You can’t see any flames, but there’s a whole lot of smoke” and the winds were picking up, said County Fire Marshal Jason Trumbull, who had been fighting the fire Monday for about 48 hours without a break.
The blaze was estimated at 300 acres on April 16, the day after it started. Driven by the wind Sunday and Monday from the west side of the Manzano Mountains toward the populated areas of Torreon and Manzano on the east side, the Trigo fire had scorched an estimated 4,425 acres and destroyed a reported nine homes as well as nine other buildings and two recreational vehicles by Wednesday.
On Wednesday, 524 fire personnel were working to contain the blaze, including Hot Shot Crews, almost a dozen fire crews, five helicopters, four air tankers and two bulldozers.
By Wednesday, the fire had cost $3.2 million to fight. The state was approved for a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, which covers 75 percent of firefighting costs on public land, with the state paying the remaining 25 percent, according to a news release from Gov. Bill Richardson’s office. Richardson traveled to the scene to survey the fire and the suppression efforts by plane Tuesday.
The FEMA grant will cover the cost of firefighting for only about 800 acres that had burned outside of the forest boundary as of Wednesday morning, with the rest paid out of the U.S. Forest Service budget, according to Dan Bastion, a public information officer for the New Mexico Incident Management Team.
On Tuesday, 82,000 gallons of retardant were dropped by air tankers, and 40,000 gallons of water were dropped by helicopters. With weather conditions holding steady Wednesday, similar amounts were expected to be dropped, according to Bastion. The leading edge to the east of the fire has stopped advancing entirely, he said.
“It’s not making any advance since it blew up Sunday night,” Bastion said. “That line (on the eastern edge) is relatively cold by now.”
Fire containment was at 37 percent Wednesday, and additional containment efforts in the rugged country are expected by today.
The fire started on the west side of the mountain, but by about 9:30 p.m. on April 16, the fire had gone over the crest, said Acting Assistant Fire Management Officer Terrance Gallegos Gallegos said.
When the wind hit the flames “it built an excessive amount of heat” so that the fire began “developing its own weather, creating so much heat in there that it’s independent of its environment,” Gallegos said.
The Ojo Peak fire exhibited “similar fire behavior,” he said. That fire burned about 7,000 acres last November and was about 4 miles northwest of the Trigo fire. “You add extremely dry (conditions) with an ignition source and windy conditions, and you get the fire behavior that you observed yesterday,” Gallegos said referring to the “significant run” that the fire made of about 2,000 acres on Sunday. The fire pushed three miles to the east, out of the national forest boundary and a half-mile from the community of Manzano.
That night, fire department officials came by “at least three different times” saying it was a voluntary evacuation, said Scott Garrett, owner of the Manzano Mountain Retreat, which is north of Manzano off Ten Pines Road and N.M. 55.
“We knew we were in trouble if the winds shifted. If (the fire) was going north we probably would have been gone,” Garrett said. When they evacuated, the fire was about 1½ miles from the property.
Helicopter crews are using the soccer field at Garrett’s camp to take off and land, and firefighters are camping at the property.
The Trigo fire is the fourth fire in the last three years for which the helicopter firefighting crews have used Garrett’s soccer field.
“Some of the people flying helicopters are almost like our annual visitors,” Garrett said.
Three days before evacuating, Garrett and caretaker Randy Simmons, worked on the defensible space already built around the property as they watched the flames from the top of their water tower.
“The irony was that on Sunday when the fire was out of control and firefighters had been taken off the fire, we had defensible space but no one to defend it. I was standing there with my hose all by myself,” Garrett said.
Evacuations were ordered for Manzano and Torreon, and the New Canyon area was closed. There are about 40 homeowners in the Ten Pines Road area off N.M. 55 in Manzano, and everyone evacuated safely, Garrett said.
Although Forest Road 245 to Capilla Peak was closed as of Wednesday, the evacuation for Manzano and Torreon was lifted at 6 a.m.
According to New Mexico Incident Management Team, the fire is thought to be human-caused.
“There’s still a lot of work,” said Bastion. “We’ll eventually nibble away at it until we’ve got the whole thing corralled.”
Those in need of assistance because their homes were lost or damaged by the Trigo fire can call the American Red Cross at 1-800-560-2302.
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