More people evacuated from near two largest wildfires burning in NM

More people fled from wildfires in northern New Mexico on Sunday, and authorities believe the dangerous conditions will continue through Monday and for another week.

The merged Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fire grew from about 70,000 acres to nearly 104,000 over the weekend, according to the latest information available on Monday morning. And on Sunday, one part of it spread north toward the villages of Mora and Cleveland, said Todd Abel, operations section chief for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team 2.

Another part of the same complex fire spread toward Las Tusas, he said.

Strong winds pushed the fires mostly northeast on Sunday, said Air Resource Adviser John Pendergrast. Sunday afternoon, San Miguel and Mora counties ordered evacuations in north and south Mora, telling people there to head north away from the fire toward Wagon Mound, Angel Fire and Taos.

New Mexico Game and Fish Sgt. Shawn Carrell said police evacuated people from San Geronimo, Mineral Hill, Montezuma and other communities north of Las Vegas, N.M.

“Please leave these areas; refusing to leave could be a fatal decision,” the counties wrote. As of Sunday night, Las Vegas was not being evacuated but was supposed to be ready to go at a moment’s notice, Carrell said.

Earlier on Sunday, about 75 miles west in the Santa Fe National Forest, Sandoval County ordered people living near the Valles Caldera to evacuate away from the Cerro Pelado Fire near the Bandelier National Monument.

As the Sunday night shift of firefighters arrived, that fire spanned 17,885 acres and was 10% contained.

Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Incident Commander Dave Bales said Sunday was challenging in part because changing wind directions made it harder to let people go home once they have been evacuated, he said.

“The fire keeps spinnin’ around today,” Bales said.

At the request of authorities, the local electric cooperative turned off power to Tecolote Creek, Camp Blue Haven, Blue Canyon and parts of Mineral Hill. They turned off power in more communities Sunday evening.

Firefighters on Sunday were building “dozer lines” — using bulldozers to remove flammable plant material down to the bare soil — around the houses in Mora and Cleveland and along the west side of Las Vegas, Abel said.

Homes at risk in Las Tusas were being prepped with sprinkler systems, and firefighters were getting ready in case the fire reached them, Abel said. The fire has so far destroyed 277 buildings including 166 homes as of Sunday, according to the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

More significant smoke is expected starting at daybreak and through most of Monday morning, Pendergrast said.

“We’re expecting unhealthy to potentially hazardous smoke conditions in the morning,” Pendergrast said. He expected longer periods of smoke and forecasted northwest wind on Monday.

Helicopters were helping firefighters from 8 a.m. until about 3 p.m. when the wind got so bad that they had to land, Abel said. One helicopter hit some bad turbulence but still made it back to base, he said.

Typically at sunset, fire conditions let up with higher relative humidity, lower temperatures and slower winds, but that didn’t happen on Sunday, said Fire Behavior Analyst Dan Pearson. He expected the fire to move east overnight into Monday.

Pearson said a northwest wind will push the fire toward Storrie Lake and State Highway 518. As the fire moves southeast, he said, it will also veer north as it goes down a slope in the terrain.

Pearson is expecting warm temperatures, very low humidities and stronger winds together known as “red flag conditions” on Monday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

“These are rather extreme fire conditions,” Pearson said. He expected these conditions to continue for the next week.

Bales said he has enough people to fight the fire, but the plant matter the fire feeds on is so dry, and that plus low relative humidity and very strong winds are enduring issues.

More than 1,100 firefighters are working on the fire, Bales said, with some working in four separate teams whose entire objective is to protect structures from the fire, Bales said.

San Miguel and Mora counties told residents in a joint news release that the fire is “a long-term event.”

“We don’t anticipate having ‘control’ of this fire any time soon,” they wrote.

Firefighters seek donations for food, potable water

Laura Paskus reports that the Cerro Pelado Fire is about five miles from Cochiti and that authorities were preparing for containment crews to stay there.

Firefighters’ main focus on Sunday and for the next few days will be in the northeast section of the fire, trying to keep the fire away from Highway 4, said Patrick Pearson, a deputy incident commander with the Southern Area Red Team.

That afternoon, Forest Supervisor Debbie Cress ordered all Forest Service lands closed along Forest Road 376 south of state Highway 126, north of Porter’s Landing at the intersection of Forest Roads 376 and 534.

The nearby volunteer Cochiti Fire Department in Sandoval County asked the public on Saturday night for donations to help feed firefighters left without enough food and water.

“Our state funds limit our ability to purchase food with our normal operating budget,” the fire department wrote in a Facebook post.