DOUSING 50-ACRE FIRE IN SANDIAS
Aircraft called in to extinguish 5 smaller fires set in foothills
An air tanker drops fire retardant Thursday around the perimeter of the Piedra Fire, which burned about 50 acres of ponderosa pine and fir trees in the Sandias near Placitas. The cause of the fire that started early Thursday morning is unknown.
A forest fire smoldered in the folds of the north Sandia Mountains early Thursday morning, but it quickly grew into a 50-acre fire when daybreak brought heat and winds.
The steep-terrain blaze caused a headache for around 70 local firefighters who fought the fire from the ground and the sky since dawn Thursday. A heavy-lifting helicopter could be seen dumping 1,500 gallons of water every seven minutes or so throughout the afternoon, and crews had to trek in for several miles before setting up to camp into today.
As crews were fighting the Piedra Fire on Thursday evening, someone lit five small brush fires in the Sandia foothills — one off of Tramway, one near La Luz trailhead and three near La Cueva trailhead, a Sandia Ranger District spokeswoman said. Crews were able to stop all of those fires quickly by calling in aircraft from the Piedra Fire, but they’re still investigating how or why the person started the fires.
The cause of the Piedra Fire is still under investigation, but it ignited near a hiking trail.
The blaze — which sparked about four miles east-southeast of Bernalillo and south of Placitas — burned south away from structures throughout the day and consumed primarily ponderosa pine and fir trees, many of which had been heavily damaged by beetles.
Firefighters had not contained any of the fire as of Thursday evening, but helicopters had “boxed it in” by dropping f lame retardant around the entire blaze.
The Piedra Lisa hiking trail was closed, and the city’s environment department issued an air quality health alert due to wildfire smoke. Smoke from the blaze could be seen drifting from a canyon in the mountains near Placitas over much of the metro area into Thursday evening.
The fire, which was spotted around 3 a.m. Thursday on
Sandia Pueblo lands, prompted responses from the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in addition to hotshot crews from Sandia and Carson National Forests.
Apart from the crews fighting the fire, the Sandoval County Fire Department used five water tankers to draw water from the river in the town of Bernalillo and offer it to four aircraft. At least 20,000 gallons of water were dropped on the fire on Thursday.
“So far, we’re keeping up,” said SCFD Deputy Chief Jess Lewis, whose glasses were covered in dust after a full day hauling water near the mountains.