Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon wildfire close to becoming the largest in New Mexico history
"This fire at a moment's notice can take on a life of its own. There's very little we can do in some cases to slow it down."
"This fire at a moment's notice can take on a life of its own. There's very little we can do in some cases to slow it down."
"This fire at a moment's notice can take on a life of its own. There's very little we can do in some cases to slow it down."
As of Sunday, the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fire is about 8,000 acres away from passing the Whitewater-Baldy fire at 297,845 acres as the largest in New Mexico history.
Matt Rau is an incident commander for the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fire. Rau said, "most of the staff here have never seen anything like this in our careers. Our rate has been approximately 9000 acres of growth for the past two days. But before that, we did see back-to-back days of just over 30,000 acres per day."
It's now burned around 290,000 acres, and the weather continues to play a big part in how quickly it's growing.
"We're still going to see winds just below or at red flag warnings. We've got historically dry fuel conditions, and we could experience large fire growth any one of these days, depending on which direction the fire moves," Rau said.
Just off Highway 518 north of Las Vegas, there are several areas of scorched land. Fire officials tell KOAT they are burned on purpose to remove fire fuel and prevent spot fires. Rau says the extreme winds have carried embers from the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fire as far as 2 miles onto vacant land, causing those spot fires. He believes the fire could threaten parts of Taos and Santa Fe County, depending on the wind.
Rau said, "every spark out there is going to start a new fire. Those to the north, the west, and the south could see significant growth to this fire in the coming days and weeks."
They've broken the fire into three zones, the South Zone, the Central Zone, and the North Zone, and established multiple incident command centers to help slow the fire down.
"We are banded together with one single focus. To stop the fire," Rau said.
Rau also said that if you're in Taos County, keep an eye on the evacuation map and be ready to collect your belongings if your area gets moved into ready, set, or go status.