Fires



Memorial Weekend Fire

It's been a busy few weeks. 
I thought that moving away from Southern California would also mean the end of watching wildfires destroy everything in their paths.  But a few weeks ago the fires started... and they haven't stopped yet. 

It's been a very, very dry year so far.  While the higher mountains have had a blessed amount of snowfall, we "low-landers" (our land is at nearly 7,000 feet in elevation) have been feeling the pinch of a slight winter and an extremely dry spring.

And then there's the wind. 

We have been plagued with hot, dry winds for the last 3 weeks!  So of course, that means fire.   

During the Memorial Day weekend, lightning started a fire in Northern New Mexico.  After it ate about 100 acres there it moved north into Colorado, just east of Trinidad.  For the next several days it burned thousands of acres.

Then last Sunday, another fire broke out near the railroad tracks in Raton -- the next town south of Trinidad.  Raton is in Northern New Mexico and is about 25 miles south of Trinidad.   The fire quickly grew and forced the closure of Highway 25 -- a main north-south highway -- between Raton NM and Trinidad, CO. 



Smoke from the Track Fire as seen from our back yard.



Track Fire that started 6/12/11



The highway has been closed since Sunday morning -- it's now Wednesday night.  The nearest detour takes you literally 100 miles out of your way.  This has been a nightmare for truckers and vacationers.  The fire is still burning on both sides of the highway in the Raton Pass.  Many parts of Raton have been under an evacuation order, and the fire is far from containment.

The last count had it burning over 25,000 acres of forest.  We smell smoke constantly.  The last I heard it was 0% contained.  I'd hate to see it come toward Trinidad.  But the winds are so erratic -- who knows?