Whitewater-Baldy Fire Now Biggest in N.M. History

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | May 30, 2012 | John Fleck

[CedarDave]

A 1 a.m. flight to assess the extent of the Whitewater-Baldy fire in the Gila National Forest concluded that 18,260 additional acres burned in the previous 24 hours. At 170,272 acres, it is now the largest fire in recorded New Mexico history, surpassing last year’s Las Conchas at 156,293 acres.

It is also the largest fire currently burning in the country. At 266 square miles, the blaze is nearly 80 square miles bigger than the city of Albuquerque.

The fire is still zero percent contained and burning in all directions, officials said in their morning news release on InciWeb. More than 1,200 firefighters and 12 helicopters have been assigned to the blaze.

[CedarDave]

The majority of the fire is burning in the Gila Wilderness with the northeastern leg burning on Forest Service multiple use land. Because the Gila has not logged or thinned, it is still in its natural state and this lightning-caused fire will clear the landscape of dead, downed and live ponderosa where crowning occurs. Major fire fighting efforts are occurring outside the wilderness along forest roads and in areas where structures are present.

[CedarDave]

[CedarDave]

This article is free to read.

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[elkfersupper]

Mebbe it will burn up a few of those wolves that have 3 or more government employees each as bodyguards.

[OneWingedShark]

I guess the only real question I have is how much the fire-fighting efforts are costing compared to that of controlled burns.

[KC Burke]

Did you tell me the last time I asked that you still had that place just north of this monster?

[cripplecreek]

There’s a big one (for Michigan) burning in the eastern UP.

Story as of Sunday.

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/16975

[Uncle Ike]

The orange air (smoke cloud) has kept me indoors for two days, due to respiratory ailments - I hear that the wind may shift overnight and push it away from here, but not holding my breath (so to speak..)

[cripplecreek]

Oops. Actual link to michigan fire story.

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/duck_lake_fire_damage_revised.html

[TBall]

Hmm...

[cripplecreek]

Lightning, dense unmanaged forest, lots of fuel on the ground. Fire should be expected even in wet states like Michigan.

[CedarDave]

Not as many acres, but 29 homes/cabins have been burned.

Using a plane like shown in the video would be a problem in NM as there are no nearby lakes to get water. Closest would probably be on the Rio Grande a hundred or more miles from the fire.

I liked the story at the incorrect link, also. There was a vote taken as to whether residents wanted wind turbines nearby. 61% said no but the local township officials are going ahead with the plan anyhow. Might be time to get them out of office.

[TBall]

Yeah, I just remember a recent headline about
AQ. If we wanted to, we could probably detect and stop these fires before they were allowed to grow.

[CedarDave]

Not as many acres, but 29 homes/cabins have been burned.

In the Michigan fire, not NM. To date, the NM fire has destroyed a dozen homes and injured five people.

[cripplecreek]

Little lakes all over the eastern UP but its also swampy which makes it hard for ground crews to get around.

[pallis]

I can’t make out anything by that map. Has it spread out to White Creek Station and up to Mogollon Baldy? East, has it spread out to Snow lake? I figured once it hit the mess up Turkey Feather Pass and Iron creek there would be no way to stop it.

[CedarDave]

Try this link:

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/2870/

There is a Google map there with the fire boundaries overlain. You can enlarge the map to check on your locations.
Good luck!

[Tijeras_Slim]

Hi Dave!

The smokes been coming up here, and one night I could swear the fire was in my driveway.

Stay safe!

Slim

[TYVets]

I guess the only real question I have is how much the fire-fighting efforts are costing compared to that of controlled burns.

Part of the money paid to the federal government for timber sales on federal lands was used for fighting forest fires.

From a high of 12 billion board feet of timber sold per year during the 1980's that number has fallen to less than 1 billion board feet sold per year.

During one of the Clinton years Bill had to transfer 300 million dollars from the "general fund" to the fire fighting fund due to reduced timber sales.

[IYAS9YAS]

If we wanted to, we could probably detect and stop these fires before they were allowed to grow.

NM just went through 5 full days of ridiculous winds. I doubt there is anything they could have done to stop it. At least one, and possibly two days saw no firefighting flights due to high winds.