Forest Service pile burn caused Calf Canyon Fire (NM - USDA FS also caused adjacent Hermits Peak fire)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | May 27, 2022 | Theresa Davis

[CedarDave]

The Calf Canyon Fire was caused by a “pile burn holdover from January” that was started by the Santa Fe National Forest Service, officials said on Friday.

The blaze later merged with the Hermits Peak Fire – also started by a federal prescribed burn – to become the largest fire in New Mexico history.

The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire has burned more than 312,000 acres as of Friday morning and is 47% contained. More than 3,000 personnel are battling the blaze that has destroyed 761 structures, including hundreds of homes.

“The Santa Fe National Forest is 100 percent focused on suppressing these fires with the support of the Type 1 incident management teams who are fully prepared to manage complex, all-risk situations,” SFNF supervisor Debbie Cress said. “Our commitment is to manage the public lands entrusted to us by improving the forest’s resilience to the many stressors they are facing, including larger, hotter wildfires, historic levels of drought, rising temperatures, and insects and disease.”

On May 20 the U.S. Forest Service paused all prescribed burns nationwide on forest lands in the wake of the New Mexico disaster.

[CedarDave]

The result of eco-nazis pushing bans on timber harvesting makes the Forest Service resort to thinning and reforestation projects to control overgrowth. Burning of debris piles from the thinning is a common way to dispose of this material.

[kiryandil]

“Our bad.” - US Forest Service

[CedarDave]

Smoky Bear sheds a tear because it was his own agency that caused the destruction.

[BenLurkin]

You mean...these fires were not caused global warming?

[Lurker]

If a private citizen did this he or she would be looking at prison time, restitution, and huge fines.

Just saying.

L

[dainbramaged]

Someone is supposed to be on fire watch during these burns.

[IYAS9YAS]

One does not simply start prescribed burns in New Mexico in the spring. The US Park Service did that 22 years ago and nearly took out Los Alamos National Labs when their fire quickly spread to the Santa Fe National Forest. Over 400 homes lost in that fire (Cerró Grande). The Calf Canyon/Hermit’s Peak complex has taken out more homes than the Cerro Grande did.

[kiryandil]

"Only The Forest Service Can't Prevent Forest Fires"

[RedElement]

They aren’t even admitting “our bad”.

They expect a gold star for their efforts, and quietly pissed that you aren’t grateful for their expertise.

[IYAS9YAS]

Someone is supposed to be on fire watch during these burns.

It wouldn't have mattered. As is usual in the spring in New Mexico, high winds whipped the controlled burn out of control before anyone would have been able to do anything to stop it. The real tragedy is the winds were a known, forecasted factor but the USFS ignored the latest forecast. Even though they claim they had better information than our local weatherman did.

[Valpal1]

But the Hammonds got five years for a backburn that burned only 1 acre of BLM land adjacent to their ranch.

[CedarDave]

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[4yearlurker]

Nothing to see here folks....move along. The experts at the Forest Service started the fires so we know how to put them out too.

[Steely Tom]

Someone is supposed to be on fire watch during these burns.

I guess "watching the fire spread" is not the same as "putting the fire out."

Reminds me of the Canadian judge who said "access to a waiting list is not the same as access to health care."

[SoConPubbie]

Probably wouldn’t have mattered.

You Wouldn’t believe how easily these kind of things that are supposed to be “controlled” get out of control.

Worked for CDF one summer at the Mormon Rocks Fire station.

One controlled burn quickly got out of control and we were left running for our lives down the firelanes that had been cut in the thick brush.

We barely escaped.

[RinaseaofDs]

Everything the government touches these days turns to sh!t. Same people that built the Hoover dam are NOT the same people engineering planned burns.

[drSteve78]

Someone is supposed to be on fire watch during these burns.

I’m certain that someone DID watch the fires. “Oh, now would you look at that!”

[M Kehoe]

Hi.

“Everything the government touches these days turns to sh!t.”

Yep.

5.56mm

[IYAS9YAS]

I guess "watching the fire spread" is not the same as "putting the fire out."

As I said, it wouldn't have mattered. The winds whipped up so fast that day, there's no way they could have responded to it quick enough even if they had water tankers on the ground close by. The real failure was the call to start the burn with the forecasted winds being a known factor by everyone except the Forest Service personnel in charge of the prescribed burn (Ultimately the Forest Supervisor's responsibility).

[ComputerGuy]

Wouldn’t it be cheaper, and better in the long run, if we paid our donbasses to stay home and just leave things alone?