近距离内射合集

Lightning strikes continue to be a major cause of wildfires in New Mexico this summer, with a string of six small fires reported in the Carson National Forest this week as containment work continues on the 15,200-acre Frijoles Fire.

Forest Service firefighters responded to the small fires in the Carson after an estimated 11,000 lightning strikes slashed northern New Mexico this week, according to Carson National Forest spokesperson Zach Behrens.

While firefighters quickly contained four of the small fires, two were still burning as of Wednesday.

The largest, the Cruces Basin Fire, was estimated at 36 acres Wednesday at the northern edge of the Cruces Basin Wilderness, a few miles south of the New Mexico-Colorado border.

Smokejumpers and Rio Grande National Forest firefighters responded to the wildfire after it was reported Tuesday afternoon. Carson National Forest crews and two helicopters are now fighting the blaze, which is 鈥渟moldering and creeping鈥� but flared up Tuesday afternoon due to powerful outflow winds from nearby thunderstorms.

While lightning is suspected, the Forest Service has yet to confirm the exact cause of the Cruces Basin Fire.

Firefighters were also on scene at the 1-acre Jarita Canyon Fire, which is exhibiting smoldering and creeping behavior to the southwest in Vallecitos in Rio Arriba County.

The small blazes come in the wake of the much larger Frijoles Fire, which stood at 15,252 acres and 55% containment as of Wednesday.

A multiagency team of in-state and national crew members helping to contain the fire reached nearly 1,000 in number before the Forest Service announced it was gradually decreasing resources dedicated to the fire this week, signaling good progress in containing the late-season wildfire.

The Frijoles Fire was first reported on Aug. 4 after lightning strikes in the Pecos Wilderness Area of Santa Fe National Forest. The blaze threatened several small communities on its western and northern flanks this month and dispersed thick smoke into many communities throughout the north-central region.

Just under 800 firefighting and support personnel are still on scene at the fire, completing fireline on the north side of the Pecos Wilderness within the Truchas Land Grant and cleaning up spot fires north of the Rio Nambe.

The U.S. Wildland Fire Service identified a support crew member who died during a medical incident Sunday at the Frijoles Fire as Randy Lupe, a 62-year-old from Arizona鈥檚 San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation.

While lightning strikes from late-summer thunderstorms kept fire teams on high alert in New Mexico this month, nearly 100 major wildfires are still burning in other states throughout the Western U.S.

A total of 148 new fires, including 14 new large wildfires, were reported in the U.S. on Tuesday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, with 22,356 firefighters and support personnel assigned to incidents nationwide.

John Miller is the Journal鈥檚 northern New Mexico correspondent. He can be reached at jmiller@abqjournal.com.