近距离内射合集

Total acreage on one of the largest wildfires to spark this year in New Mexico remained at a standstill for a second time this week on Friday as officials bolstered the ranks of the multi-agency crew battling the late-season blaze and met with concerned residents in Espa帽ola.

Inside the McCurdy Ministries McCracken Gym on Friday evening, U.S. Forest Service Operations Manager Jason Flores told the public that acreage on the Frijoles Fire in the Pecos Wilderness remained unchanged from Thursday, spanning an estimated 8,921 acres in the Santa Fe National Forest.

A fire management team from California took over the fire Thursday morning. The Forest Service this week added scores of additional personnel to the firefighting effort, increasing total team members from 86 on Sunday to 430 as of Friday. In addition to New Mexico鈥檚 own wildland crews, fire personnel hail from states like California, Idaho, Arizona and Colorado.

At Friday鈥檚 meeting, Forest Service Administrator Jim Eaton said the initial Type 3 fire team to respond to the fire last week was challenged with responding to a blaze in a remote wilderness area with limited personnel before additional resources could be assembled.

鈥淭hey hit that fire hard, as hard as you can hit it with all the resources that we had available to us at the time,鈥� he said.

New Mexico Forestry Division spokesperson George Ducker told the Journal on Friday that the state division鈥檚 own firefighting teams, which typically respond to fires on nonfederal, nonmunicipal, nontribal and private lands, have also joined the battle to contain the Frijoles Fire, which dropped from 1% to 0% containment on Thursday after growing by around another 400 acres.

Firefighters on the ground continue to reinforce containment lines, focusing on the western, northwestern and northern edges of the fire where growth has mainly taken place since the fire was discovered Aug. 4 following lightning strikes.

鈥淲e鈥檙e doing direct confinement strategy,鈥� Flores said. 鈥淲e have folks on the ground, on the perimeter of the fire鈥檚 edge, taking direct action, suppression actions on that.鈥�

Meanwhile, aerial resources 鈥� air tanker planes and helicopters 鈥� continue to drop water and fire retardant, which is burning through trees and brush desiccated by an unusual lack of moisture.

鈥淣ew Mexico has had a long fire season already,鈥� said Lee Helgeson, fire behavior analyst.

Answering a question from the public, Flores said firefighting teams have not encountered additional incursions into the fire鈥檚 temporary flight restriction zone after two drones grounded aerial resources in separate incidents earlier this month.

Ducker said thunderstorms, which returned to the region late this week and should persist through the weekend, can also prevent firefighting pilots from taking off to provide crucial moisture to the remote wildfire.

However, fire managers said forecasters predict dry weather will return by the middle of next week.

鈥淥ur priority is to protect the communities in that area due to the outflows of the thunderstorms that we were getting and the increased fire activity at that time,鈥� Flores said.

Evacuation ratings for nearby communities remained unchanged as of Friday evening as crews continued to prepare homes and other structures that might be threatened by the fire, to now include Truchas directly north of the blaze.

Camino de Ca帽on in Cundiy贸, a street with about 10 houses west of the fire, is still the only area set to 鈥淕o鈥� status, while the remainder of Cundiy贸 and Cerro Pi帽on remain in 鈥淪et鈥� status.

The village of Cordova and the uninhabited area of Borrego Mesa are set to 鈥淩eady,鈥� meaning anyone who might be in those areas should begin preparations to evacuate if needed.

So far, no evacuees have made use of the emergency shelter established on Monday at Pojoaque Valley Middle School, a fire official said at Friday鈥檚 public meeting.

Toward the end of Friday鈥檚 meeting, Deputy Incident Commander Bill Miller said he has personal experience not only fighting wildfires, but having his own town threatened by an unpredictable blaze.

鈥淚鈥檝e often been on the receiving end of teams coming in and briefing them and trying to share with them what鈥檚 important to our forests, to our community members,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 know what it鈥檚 like to sit in your seats. Matter of fact, Southwest Incident Management Team 1 right now is saving my community. My wife and children are evacuated in Reno, Nevada.鈥�

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