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US Forest Service Admits Multiple Miscalculations Caused Fire in New Mexico | New Mexico

US Forest Service Admits Multiple Miscalculations Caused Fire in New Mexico |  New Mexico

 


U.S. Forest Service employees made multiple miscalculations, used inaccurate models and underestimated drought conditions in the Southwest, prompting planned burning to reduce the threat of wildfires to explode in the most largest fire in recorded history in New Mexico, the agency said. tuesday.

The agency quietly released an 80-page review that details planning errors and conditions on the ground when crews started the directed fire in early April. The report says officials who planned the operation underestimated the amount of wood and vegetation available to fuel the flames, the exceptionally dry conditions and the rural villages and water supply that would be at risk if things went wrong. wrong.

Hours after starting a test fire that April day, several spot fires were reported outside the containment lines and there were not enough resources or water to bring them under control.

The devastating impact of this fire on communities and the livelihoods of those affected in New Mexico has demanded this level of scrutiny to ensure we understand how this tragic event unfolded, the Chief Forester wrote. American, Randy Moore. I cannot overstate how heartbreaking these impacts are for communities and individuals.

As of Tuesday, the blaze had charred more than 533 square miles (1,380 km2), making it the largest blaze to burn this spring in the United States. It comes in a particularly fierce season in which fire danger in overgrown forests in the west has reached historic levels due to decades of drought and warmer weather brought on by the climate crisis.

The number of acres burned so far this year is more than two and a half times the national average for the past 10 years, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. So far, 31,000 wildfires have burned more than 5,000 square miles (12,950 km2) in the United States.

Smoke from the Calf Canyon/Hermit Peak fire drifts over Las Vegas, New Mexico. Photograph: Robert Browman/AP

Anger and frustration are simmering among residents and elected officials in northern New Mexico, where several hundred homes have been destroyed and thousands of residents displaced.

Many mountainsides were reduced to ashes and the once towering ponderosa pines were turned into charred toothpicks. Places considered sacred by the families of herders and farmers who have inhabited the region for generations have been wiped out.

U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernndez called the Forest Service review incredibly disturbing, pointing to the use of outdated data to plan the prescribed burn and the cascade of errors that followed.

She said the failures of the forest service have destroyed many wealthy and proud communities in New Mexico.

These are complex questions. Starting a prescribed burn in an area where there are homes, watersheds and communities should be something you take extremely seriously, as these are high value assets, she said. They didn’t value the resources, the communities, the historic nature of those communities, and so they went ahead accepting more risk than they should have.

Leger Fernndez also said threats of a second disaster loom with expected rainfall on burn scars.

Following the fire, the Forest Service in May suspended prescribed burn operations across the United States pending its own national review, which will identify the need to update protocols, policies or procedures based on changing conditions due to drought and climate crisis.

The report said the crew believed they were within approved limits for the planned burn and had a plan to construct a line where they could check the progress of fires and cease ignitions if parameters were exceeded.

But the fire was burning in much drier conditions than the crew thought, according to Forest Service analysis of fuel and weather information.

Persistent drought, limited snow and rain, fine fuel accumulation, and fuel loading from combustion unit preparation all contributed to increased escape risk, the report said.

A combination of spot weather forecasts and on-site observations were the only meteorological data collection methods used. The days leading up to the ignition of the directed fire were described as a weather rollercoaster, and the agency said more data should have been used to assess conditions.

The report also says officials did not accurately assess the complexity of the predicted fire, providing a picture that the risks had been reduced when in fact that was not the case.

The prescribed burn was part of a plan first adopted in 2019 to reduce the risk of wildfires in the Gallinas watershed. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said she was frustrated that Forest Service planning documents related to the project have been reapproved every year since then without adjustments to account for the worsening drought.

She said in a statement that it does not appear anyone involved in the burning was held accountable for what she said were material mistakes.

It was not immediately clear whether the Forest Service had taken disciplinary action, but the report includes proposed recommendations for improving policies and performance.

The report says that on several occasions before and after a test fire was lit before the prescribed burn, some personnel felt that the dry conditions would cause a higher risk, but they accepted the assignment.

Leger Fernndez said his request for an independent investigation had been approved. It will review federal prescribed fire policies nationwide.

Joe Biden recently flew over the fire and briefly stopped in New Mexico to assure locals that the federal government would take responsibility for its role in the blaze.

Sources

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2/ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/21/new-mexico-wildfire-forest-service-mistakes

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