On the frontlines: Touring Hermits Peak Calf Canyon fire containment
"It's trying to protect people, ourselves, and the valuables like houses that are out there," says Incident Commander Ralph Lucas
"It's trying to protect people, ourselves, and the valuables like houses that are out there," says Incident Commander Ralph Lucas
"It's trying to protect people, ourselves, and the valuables like houses that are out there," says Incident Commander Ralph Lucas
For the first time since the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fire began, our crews got to see the north edge of the fire line and how it's being fought. It's ripped through 311,000 acres from Las Vegas into Taos County. Today, KOAT got a look into the damage and what's left behind.
The fire has become so big that there are now three incident command centers. Our tour leader Ralph Lucas is the incident commander for the center in Taos County.
Lucas said, "It's basically trying to protect people, ourselves, and the valuables like houses that are out there."
Lucas first took us to a few homes just miles away from the fire.
"If the fire were coming down here, embers would be dropping on all of these structures. We fill up these big orange tanks called pumpkins with water. They go from three thousand to ten thousand gallons, and they're filled from water trucks. You'll see sprinklers strategically placed around these houses, and we'll fire those up, so all of the houses get wet. You'll see fire coming, and the flames will just start dissipating and then go out as they approach the structures. We set up hundreds if not thousands of these systems in these areas," Lucas said.
Next, we visited the containment lines. Some were built with bulldozers, and others with controlled burns. Lucas tells KOAT that those lines protect communities threatened by the fire.
"When it gets to a point where a decision must be made, and how we're going to try to stop it, we use both. The band of green is where we lit fire along the base of the slope. That fire scooted up underneath the trees, not igniting the trees, and hit the main body of fire and stopped it, keeping the homes safe," Lucas said.
In the final stop of our tour in Taos county, we got to see all of the lands that the fire ripped through around Mora and Hermit's Peak about two weeks ago. Lucas tells KOAT that the burnt area will see the effects for years to come.
"Monsoon rains will be an issue here. The ground can't hold the water, so the rain will grab all the ash and run straight off the landscape into the drainage. We've got a fire that comes through, and then our next issue is flooding," Lucas said.
In the coming weeks, a burned area rehabilitation team will come into those damaged areas to prepare the ground for monsoons.