The Land of Enchantment’s biggest blaze in recorded history has reached 150,041 acres in size, with 61% containment. Smoke still abounds in the Jemez Mountains; at the home of VallesCaldera.com near Sierra los Piños, Redondo Peak, which is three miles to the north, is completely invisible, having been enshrouded in smoke. This is due to the most active remaining front in the fire, which is burning roughly nine miles west of Jemez Springs and four miles southeast of here.
The following photo, by Pete Gomez , shows the Las Conchas Fire as visible from Albuquerque yesterday:
Fire managers issued the following summary of the blaze this morning:
A few areas on the north end of the Las Conchas Fire received precipitation yesterday. While most of this came as light showers, some locally heavy rainfall caused flooding on a few streams in the Santa Clara Canyon. There was no significant impact on the firefighting effort.
Except for these showers, the weather has been warmer and drier the last few days. This drying trend is expected to continue. Fire activity will continue to increase, resulting in more smoke. People living or traveling in the vicinity of the fire will notice this increased smoke, including at night.
Most of the Las Conchas Fire is contained and is in patrol status. The steep, inaccessible slopes on the north and southwest edges of the fire continue to be a barrier to containing the fire. Due to safety concerns, firefighters can’t work on these slopes.
On the southwest edge, the fire has been backing down the steep slope from Peralta Ridge toward Forest Road (FR) 266. Last night, firefighters conducted a low intensity burnout to reinforce the control line along this road. Burnout operations went well and mop-up and patrol will continue today. Fire managers plan for a continued low intensity burnout again this evening as long as weather conditions permit. The burnout will secure this portion of the line while minimizing impacts on the area.
While firefighters continue to battle the inferno, activists are focusing on the future protection of the burn area, with a coalition of organizations issuing a public call for the entire perimeter of the fire to be closed to motorized vehicles and cross-country travel indefinitely (with the exception of paved roads):
Members of WildEarth Guardians, the Sierra Club, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance and other groups sent a letter to Santa Fe forest supervisor Maria Garcia this week, urging that she consider issuing an indefinite emergency closure order to motorized recreational vehicles and cross-country travel within the fire’s perimeter.
The groups also want the forest to issue a final decision on its travel management plan as soon as possible given the resources that will be directed toward recovery of the burned area in the coming months.
“We are concerned that the fire area must be treated with the utmost care in the period immediately following,” the groups said. “In particular watersheds are highly vulnerable post-fire as are wildlife populations. Unmaintained roads and trails can exacerbate the problems, especially if they are used under the current conditions.”
This marks just the latest plea for curbing the use of off-road vehicles in the Jemez Mountains. In 2009, environmentalists and some landowners petitioned the U.S. Forest Service to close nearly 70 miles of motorized routes in the area.
Fire managers also reported progress in preparing fire-ravaged Santa Clara Pueblo for possible flooding:
At Santa Clara Pueblo the following work has been completed: 3,000 feet of concrete barrier was placed, 30,000 sand bags filled and placed, three miles of channel cleaning and debris removal, two bridge box culverts and 15 other culverts cleaned, half a mile of fence removed from Santa Clara Creek, and over 10 miles of hazard trees were marked and felled on the road up Santa Clara Canyon. The Army Corp of Engineers reviewed work that has been done and suggested additional point protection be done around the Day School. The fish in ponds 2 and 3 will be shocked and removed and the ponds drained and cleaned.
Reviewing a completed fuel break, Bruce Bauer, Director of Forestry, Santa Clara Pueblo and BAER Team Liaison was able to see the results of an effective fuels treatment. “You could see where the fire made a good run and then just lay down when it hit the break. I’m really glad we did that project or we wouldn’t have seen that island of green.” In an area where the Santa Clara Pueblo has had 80% of its land base burned since the Cerro Grande fire, every sliver of green timber makes a difference to stabilizing soil.
Today wildlife specialists visited Forest Service land to check on Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout habitat. The creek the fish reside in is narrow and shallow with ash sloughing off into the stream. Unfortunately, the area around the creek has been severely burned and specialists believe the fish will not be able to survive. Written assessments for the Santa Fe National Forest will be completed today.
InciWeb also, for the first time, released a detailed analysis today of the amount of acreage that has burned in the fire for each jurisdiction in the area:
Indian Trust Land (18,829 acres)
Jemez Pueblo 2,238 acres
Santa Clara Pueblo 16,587 acres
Santa Domingo Pueblo 4 acres
Santa Fe National Forest 76,634 acres
Bandelier National Monument 20,810 acres
Los Alamos National Laboratory 133 acres
State of New Mexico 1,704 acres
Valles Caldera National Preserve 27,781 acres
Private Land 3,352 acres
Meanwhile, KOB-TV reported that non-violent prisoners were among those who helped battle the fire:
They’re serving time in prison, but that hasn’t stopped them from fighting the biggest wildfires our state has ever seen. And this special group of inmates in Los Lunas is getting a chance at a new career opportunity.
It’s called the inmate work camp program. It’s run by New Mexico State Forestry, and puts non-violent inmates in a setting that goes far beyond concrete walls and barbed wire fences.
When the Las Conchas fire hit its peak and posed the biggest threat to Los Alamos, hundreds of firefighters stormed the lines. One of them is serving a roughly two-year sentence at the Central New Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas.
“Pretty intense, there was a lot of fires up there, we were on structure protection at the Pajarito Ski Area, making sure that it didn’t burn,” said inmate firefighter Timothy Duncan.
Here is the most recent progression map of the Las Conchas Fire (click on the map for a detailed view):

In addition, you can view a Google Earth image of the fire here, and the overnight infrared image of the blaze here.