Dry weather hampers firefighting near Taos
Late-season Luna Fire, now nearly 9,000 acres, has not been contained at all, officials say
Fire season in Northern New Mexico has gone into overtime. Maybe double overtime. With much of the state in the grip of severe drought due to a lack of rainfall throughout the year and a summer heat weave, conditions in Carson National Forest near Taos were ripe for a wildfire.
And that’s just what happened as the nearly 9,000-acre Luna Fire ripped through the forest near the tiny village of Chacon, about 12 miles north of Mora. Forest officials said late Monday they still had not begun to contain the blaze, which ignited Saturday.
Meteorologists say the traditional fire season in New Mexico generally peaks in May and June, giving way to the summer monsoon, which was mild this year. But they acknowledged it’s possible for fires to spark in the fall.
“It’s abnormal but not unheard of,” said Chuck Jones, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque.
“There’s kind of a secondary peak with wildfires in the fall when things dry out after the monsoons, but that’s usually in September, not October,” Jones added. “But it’s been dry all year. The monsoon season was hitand-miss, and the fall has been exceptionally warm and dry.”
The U.S. Forest Service on Monday acknowledged drought conditions were affecting the firefighting effort.
“Different strategies of fire suppression are being taken in unseasonably and historically dry conditions,” the Forest Service said in a news release Monday morning.
Incident commanders were expected to begin fighting the fire by air.
The Forest Service also revised its estimation of the size of the Luna Fire, announcing new mapping showed the blaze had grown to between 6,500 and 7,000 acres by Monday morning, rather than more than 7,000, as previously reported.
By Monday evening, however, it had grown by another 2,000 acres.
The fire started in Carson National Forest in wooded canyons about 2 miles northeast of Chacon, a rural community of a few hundred people near the Taos and Mora County line. The area, at 9,000 to 11,000 feet in elevation, had not seen many fires in the past, officials said.
The fire was threatening structures in Chacon and Forest Service campgrounds, as well as natural and cultural resources, water systems and private land.
About 90 crew members were battling the Luna Fire on Monday.
“Due to the complexity of the Luna Fire and values at risk, agency administrators from the Carson National Forest and New
Crews are pushed to the brink. They’ve been working all summer, and yet there is another fire.” Zander Evans, executive director of the Forest Stewards Guild
Mexico State Forestry Division ordered a Type 1 [Incident Management Team] expected to take command of the fire on Thursday,” the Forest Service said.
A Type 1 team responds to the most complex fires, bringing top-level resources.
The Forest Service also said some residents in the Luna Canyon area had voluntarily evacuated, but there were no mandatory evacuation orders.
The cause of the fire was still under investigation.
According to The Taos News, several people reported seeing a flash Saturday night before the smoke and flames appeared. Some thought a plane had gone down, but authorities said they had not found any sign of a crash.
The conditions that conspired to turn the Luna Fire into a major problem stoked concerns for those who keep a close eye on forests, as much of the state has not seen precipitation in weeks if not months.
Forecasts for the winter months are not promising, either. Earlier this month, meteorologists said they expect to see a La Niña weather pattern, which tends to create a drying trend in the winter across the Southwest by pushing eastern-moving storms to the north.
Zander Evans, executive director of the Forest Stewards Guild, which takes part in controlled burns and other fire management actions across the country, said the Luna Fire is a troubling sign for crews already stretched thin.
“This is exactly the sort of thing that all the research for the last 10 years said is going to happen with climate change, and here it is — just what we didn’t want,” Evans said.
“Crews are pushed to the brink,” he added. “They’ve been working all summer, and yet there is another fire. Plus it’s hard to focus on any planning or preventative measures when everyone has to focus on the immediate danger.”