Crews wary of wind

Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire grows to 303K acres as officials anticipate strong gusts

Fire crews experienced winds — and perhaps unexpectedly, wins — Thursday on the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. But a significant challenge in the 303,342acre fire comes Friday when even higher winds likely will threaten crews’ tenuous hold on lines ranging from Skyline Ridge in the south to Angostura to the north to Chacon to the east.

Fire officials were thrilled by what they said were crews’ ability to blunt worrisome fire jumps in the N.M. 518 corridor near Angostura in Taos County on Thursday — a front-line area considered important to strategists’ longterm hopes of keeping the blaze from spreading north and east toward Black Lake and Angel Fire.

“Frankly, I’m surprised,” said Jayson Coil, operations section chief on that area of the fire. “Our objective was to keep the fire south of 518, but we also knew it was a difficult task. I attribute that to firefighters staying diligent, catching everything when it was small. If one tree torched out in that area, that’d be more than you’d be able to get with hand crews, without any air support, without getting

engines or bulldozers to it.

“So, this is just hard work, crawling over the dead and downed [trees] in those areas and being able to get to those spots when they were small,” Coil continued. “My hat’s off to them.”

With nearly 2,200 firefighters on the scene, the fire — which encompasses 473 square miles — is 34 percent contained. There were no new announcements of evacuations in the northwestern section of the fire, which threatens the Sipapu ski area in Taos County and homes along N.M. 518.

“The next day or two’s kinda critical,” said Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe.

But as has been the case throughout, a good day on is often followed by a bad one. And Friday portends to be a challenging time, as treacherous west and southwest winds, expected at 25 mph with gusts of up to 45 mph, are in the forecast.

Thursday’s success bought crews more time to shore up lines and create more firebreaks, but computer models do not paint a pleasant picture if the windswept fire is able to make a run north and east.

Fire behavior analyst Stewart Turner said Friday’s conditions could bring one of the six biggest days of fire growth since the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon blaze began in early April.

The reason, Turner said, is simple: Wind.

“That’s going to be key to the spread of the fire,” he said.

Surprisingly, perhaps, crews were able to have success for much of Thursday without the help of their allies in the air — helicopters and planes dropping water and fire retardant.

With Friday’s red flag warning, signaling high winds and low humidity, it’s uncertain how long — or if — the planes can fly.

Turner said a key area, other than the thumb of fire in the Angostura area, is near the community of Chacon, about 15 miles northwest, in Mora County.

If the fire gets loose there, it has the opportunity to make another run, he said.

He warned the Luna Fire scar, considered as an ally in the fight compared to the unburned timber around it, remains very dry and combustible.

The south/southwest wind will be more helpful in southern and western areas of the fire facing the communities around Pecos in western San Miguel County because it likely will blow the blaze back into burned areas, Turner said.

Brent Davidson, the operations section chief for that part of the fire, said crews were able to hold the fire near Skyline Ridge.

“It’s still backing down the bill against the wind, but it’s not making any kind of big movement,” he said.

Though it has not grown appreciably for several days, the Cerro Pelado Fire still burns southwest of Los Alamos. It is at 45,605 acres — making it larger than the famed Cerro Grande Fire of 2000 — and 74 percent containment.

In Southern New Mexico, the Black Fire has grown significantly, to 93,000 acres about 31 miles northwest of Truth or Consequences.