Wind-Driven New Mexico Forest Blaze Quadruples in Size Overnight, Some Homes Evacuated
CAPITAN, N.M. (AP) -- A wind-driven fire flared from 2,400 acres to about 10,000 acres overnight Sunday in the Capitan Mountains of central New Mexico, prompting authorities to evacuate seven homes.
``We had a 15-mile flame front last night,'' Beth Wilson, fire information officer, said Monday morning. ``Basically, it burned up the better part of the northern Capitan Mountains.''
No structures were burned, and no injuries were reported, she said.
The Peppin fire, nine miles east of Capitan in the Lincoln National Forest, was triggered May 15 by lightning. It initially crept along the ground before exploding Sunday.
Because of the fire's ferocity and the rough country, firefighters have been unable to directly attack the blaze, which was pushed by sustained wind of 10 to 15 mph.
``It's just nasty terrain - very steep, very rocky, very dense,'' Wilson said.
The fire has burned mixed conifer, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, pinon and juniper trees, Wilson said. Much of the standing timber was killed by bark beetles and is tinder-dry, she said.
``It's just a bad combination of factors,'' Wilson said.
Aircraft have been dropping fire retardant and water around communications towers atop Capitan Peak.
Firefighters were focusing on protecting homes east of the blaze and were working on a flanking strategy, Wilson said.
Another fire some 50 miles to the northwest has burned about 4,600 acres in the Gallinas Mountains west of Corona in the Cibola National Forest. The human-caused Lookout fire, reported Friday, is 40 percent contained. More than 550 people battled the fire Sunday.
Fire investigators said the fire was apparently started by people as a warming fire, although the area is off-limits to campfires.
In Arizona, meanwhile, firefighters set a burnout along State Highway 191 on a stubborn wildfire that has burned more than 4,000 acres of mountainous terrain in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.
Fire information spokeswoman Terri Wildermuth said the fire had burned at least 4,117 acres but was 15 percent contained. There was no estimate for containment. About 540 firefighters were battling the fire.
