FIRE!

I’ve neglected posting here, busy with lots of other things.  But last night we were treated to some nice thunderstorms and a couple good soaking rain showers. Notah and Pat watched the lightening strikes across the way while we were having dinner.

Later they took Seth and went road cruising.  Kerra went to lie down and read. Keva played video games.  I played a couple games of Facebook.  About nine-thirty I called it a night and went to get ready for bed. 

When I was standing by the bed in my night gown, Kerra yelled through the door,  “There’s a fire in the Pinos. You want to drive over and see.” Notah and the road cruising expedition were at the top of the mountain pass down 60.  They had looked down and seen the fire.  He called to tell Kerra.  So I put my dress back on and we took off. 

We went down 47 to 60 and the west for a ways. We could see the fire off to the southeast.  Kerra and Keva maintained there were three or four firetrucks or vehicles. I could separate out three; I thought there was only one.  At any rate the fire people were ‘on it’ early.

Of course we couldn’t (and didn’t want to) get close.  I’m no good at estimating distances but when we’re thinking ‘fire’ it wasn’t very far off across the landscape.

This is the third or fourth wildfire in New Mexico this spring and summer.  The first was the Whitewater Baldy Complex fire in the southwest. We had smoke in central NM for a couple weeks from this and it was a long ways off

This fire, although under control now, more than a month later, is still burning in central areas. I think at last count it had consumed more than 300,000 acres.  

The second fire that caused a lot of damage was the fire near Ruidosa, the Little Bear fire. 

Those billows aren’t clouds.  They’re smoke.   Here’s a night photo. 

This photo came through the Indian Country network because the Mescalero Apache Reservation is very close by.  They were concerned about the threat to the land and their income producing ski resort.

This fire seriously damaged the Bonita Park Nazarene Campground and Conference Center.  Notah and Kerra attend a Nazarene congregation and we heard about it first in the Sunday worship service.  At that time only the gym had been damaged.  As time went on a major part of the cabins and homes of workers was destroyed. 

This is only the third of July. And the Fourth is coming up. Lots of stupid people will be shooting fireworks. Many areas of NM, in spite or our nice sporatic rains, are tinder dry and covered with sage and juniper--combustible brush filled with evergreen resins and turpentine like sap. The potential for more fires is high