Little Bear Wildfire

TXgolfer

TXgolfer

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I arrived in NM close to the fire site last night. I have been to Katrina,Rita and Charlie and have never seen devastation like this. Granted the human toll will be no where near the same and that is a blessing. But the wildlife toll is incredible. I wasn't prepared for what I saw this morning. Deer literally dying in the town streets..... I guess from the smoke, And horses burned to death. The fire is still burning though luckily not threading town right now. The wind did change back in the direction of town this afternoon thought. Just a horrible scene.
 
TXgolfer said:
I arrived in NM close to the fire site last night. I have been to Katrina,Rita and Charlie and have never seen devastation like this. Granted the human toll will be no where near the same and that is a blessing. But the wildlife toll is incredible. I wasn't prepared for what I saw this morning. Deer literally dying in the town streets..... I guess from the smoke, And horses burned to death. The fire is still burning though luckily not threading town right now. The wind did change back in the direction of town this afternoon thought. Just a horrible scene.
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I know. I've been following it. :(
 
kokonut said:
I know. I've been following it. :(
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I took some pics from Alto. I hiked up a little ways but it was too much for pics.

I thought I was in trouble driving in last night but got through it. Took 380 to 37 and had to double back. Went in to Capitan and took 48 over. Still could barely see through there for about 20 miles. Capitan was a ghost town....Everyone was gone. Spooky.
 
rockin'robin said:
Heart-wrenching!...Feeling so helpless to do anything....
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Absolutely.... There is a huge fight going on in town because state officials want to do things differently than the Forest service. It's a nasty fight. Things are tense at best.
 
Oh wow, that's sad to see terrible wildfires. :(

California had terrible wildfires too.
 
TXgolfer said:
Absolutely.... There is a huge fight going on in town because state officials want to do things differently than the Forest service. It's a nasty fight. Things are tense at best.
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This reminds me of that bear friend you had at your place...........
 
42,000 acres and 60% contained.. That's bad. It is better than over 100,000 acres. I hate wildfires.
 
Barbaro said:
42,000 acres and 60% contained.. That's bad. It is better than over 100,000 acres. I hate wildfires.
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Yup, me too.

I'm concerned about southeast states will have wildfire in near future.
 
Tousi said:
This reminds me of that bear friend you had at your place...........
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Yes, I haven't seen him yet. :( The fire is 7-8 miles from me but the animals here are spooked.

It unreal to see the mini pumpers patrolling the neighborhoods just waiting. It's like cops looking for a criminal. They say we are safe really on spark and this place is history. I saw them arrest a group of 5 in town today for smoking so....it's tense.
 
Barbaro said:
42,000 acres and 60% contained.. That's bad. It is better than over 100,000 acres. I hate wildfires.
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Except Bonito Lake is in the middle of that fire. A 60 acre lake reservoir that serves as a city water supply for Alamogordo, Holloman AFB, and a few communities that share the water line. The lake is now rendered ruined.

Just because it is 60% contained does NOT in anyway mean that fire is under control. I know of a fire in New Mexico that was 95% contained and the Incident Commander began to send fire fighting crews home and they started to leave but then the winds kicked up, the fire got whipped up in a hurry and jumped the containment line into a full blown blow up. I was on highway I-25 going south and saw over the mountain the begin of a blow up and knew the crew just lost the containment. They had to start all over again at 0% containment and the IC had to call back the crews he tried to send them home.

It's not over until it's over at 100% contained.
 
TXgolfer said:
Yes, I haven't seen him yet. :( The fire is 7-8 miles from me but the animals here are spooked.

It unreal to see the mini pumpers patrolling the neighborhoods just waiting. It's like cops looking for a criminal. They say we are safe really on spark and this place is history. I saw them arrest a group of 5 in town today for smoking so....it's tense.
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Nearly hit a couple of elks during the Penasco fire in 2002 that consumed some 15,000 acres. Yes, gotta watch out for spooked animals during a fire. Even saw several dead cows that got caught in a wildfire during one my firefighting work.
 
kokonut said:
Except Bonito Lake is in the middle of that fire. A 60 acre lake reservoir that serves as a city water supply for Alamogordo, Holloman AFB, and a few communities that share the water line. The lake is now rendered ruined.

Just because it is 60% contained does NOT in anyway mean that fire is under control. I know of a fire in New Mexico that was 95% contained and the Incident Commander began to send fire fighting crews home and they started to leave but then the winds kicked up, the fire got whipped up in a hurry and jumped the containment line into a full blown blow up. I was on highway I-25 going south and saw over the mountain the begin of a blow up and knew the crew just lost the containment. They had to start all over again at 0% containment and the IC had to call back the crews he tried to send them home.

It's not over until it's over at 100% contained.
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We are already under boil warnings. The shower felt like a sand shower....amazing that the quality could go bad that quickly.

We hiked up a little from Bonito park through the char. On the way back 4 tiny columns had relit. This thing is far from over....it's just a matter of wind direction now. The wind shifted toward town this afternoon but the fire would have to go quite a ways before it caused new damage.

The crazy part is the fighting between Feds and state/county officials+residents. It's nasty....like something out of a bad movie

BTW, I could be wrong but I think their structure count is way low. They just got the Runnels Stables area under control today. They post a sheet with info daily all over town and it is giving that same count but it seems way low to me.

There were 8 or 9 down in Enchanted Forest alone (that I saw) and that was a tiny tip of the area. Those houses were gone....ash pile.
 
Living in California very familiar with these terrible fires. What I can not believe is that fireworks are still allowed to be sold here. All the booths being set up today. My prayers are with all the people dealing with this terrible fire.
 
TXgolfer said:
We are already under boil warnings. The shower felt like a sand shower....amazing that the quality could go bad that quickly.

We hiked up a little from Bonito park through the char. On the way back 4 tiny columns had relit. This thing is far from over....it's just a matter of wind direction now. The wind shifted toward town this afternoon but the fire would have to go quite a ways before it caused new damage.

The crazy part is the fighting between Feds and state/county officials+residents. It's nasty....like something out of a bad movie

BTW, I could be wrong but I think their structure count is way low. They just got the Runnels Stables area under control today. They post a sheet with info daily all over town and it is giving that same count but it seems way low to me.

There were 8 or 9 down in Enchanted Forest alone (that I saw) and that was a tiny tip of the area. Those houses were gone....ash pile.
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Bonito Lake is far inside the containment line so any re-ignition will be expected but will only burn there. The concerns are that the fire does not jump past the containment line. The "magic hour" for a forest fire is typically between 11 AM and 3 PM where the heating of the day begins and the humidity dries out from the morning. You will see more ignition and smoke during the day.

Structure counts are quite accurate. They use aerial photos prior to the fire to count structures within the containment line and the fire crews report on damages on those structures as a confirmation and get them counted up as part of information for the public for those wondering about their private properties.
 
kokonut said:
Bonito Lake is far inside the containment line so any re-ignition will be expected but will only burn there. The concerns are that the fire does not jump past the containment line. The "magic hour" for a forest fire is typically between 11 AM and 3 PM where the heating of the day begins and the humidity dries out from the morning. You will see more ignition and smoke during the day.

Structure counts are quite accurate. They use aerial photos prior to the fire to count structures within the containment line and the fire crews report on damages on those structures as a confirmation and get them counted up as part of information for the public for those wondering about their private properties.
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Yeah, like I said I could be wrong (probably wrong) But if I would have had to guess the number of structures in the area I would have said 2,000.....But then again maybe 2,000 is right but they save most of them. Dunno. I certainly hope the lower figure is accurate.
 
Angle1989 said:
Living in California very familiar with these terrible fires. What I can not believe is that fireworks are still allowed to be sold here. All the booths being set up today. My prayers are with all the people dealing with this terrible fire.
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Those prayers are greatly appreciate. This area won't be the same for a long time.
 
Tremendous thunderstorm now....this could be worst case scenario if it lasts. Streets started flooding in less than 5 minutes
 
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