Weather gives break to N.M. fire crews

MORA, N.M. — Firefighters in New Mexico who are battling the nation’s largest wildfire said Monday that cooler weather helped them prevent the blaze from growing as nearly 3,000 firefighters worked to strengthen and increase their firebreaks.

Authorities also took stock of the ecological impact of the blaze in a survey of burn severity and soil damage in areas that may be prone to extreme erosion and lengthy deforestation.

The blaze, which started nearly seven weeks ago in the Rocky Mountains foothills, remained just 40% contained Monday. Fire crews were helped over the weekend by water-dropping helicopters and other aircraft and by cooler temperatures.

The blaze started as two fires and burned into one large one. Flames have consumed more than 484 square miles of timber, grassland and brush, and evacuations have been in place for weeks.

On Monday, the U.S. Forest Service released a survey of vegetation and soil damage across 118 square miles of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that burned in recent weeks, including public and private land.

About one-fifth of the area experienced high-severity burning that can lead to heavy and even dangerous erosion. Trees in those areas will take many years to recover without planting.

The fire is among five active large fires in the state and among 14 nationally, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. It accounts for nearly 60% of the 536 square miles consumed by wildfires in the U.S. so far this year.

Wildfires have broken out this spring in multiple states in the western U.S., where climate change and an enduring drought are fanning the frequency and intensity of forest and grassland fires. The number of square miles burned this year is far above the 10-year national average.