Update on New Mexico Fire Near Los Alamos Labs and the new Donaldson Fire, June 30, 2011

If the fire burning near Los Alamos was not enough, New Mexico fire fighters are also fighting a fire now in southern New Mexico.  With the steep terrain, fighting the fire from the sky is one of their best choices for the Donaldson fire.

All of us need to be saying our prayers for rain and for the people of New Mexico who have been evacuated and for those who are now fighting these two new fires while wrapping up the huge fire that came out of Arizona.  Their resources have to be stretched to the maximum.

The trained firefighting crews from the Native American Tribes respond to fires throughout the West every year and with their training are a huge help to local firefighters.  Our Western states would be in real problems without the tribal firefighters.  Speaking for a lot of us, the tribal leaders deserve a huge Thank You for providing the resources to do the training and then making these firefighters available to fight these huge forest fires in the West that seem to be getting worse and closer together since you no longer have controlled burns.

Wildfire burns on NM ranch owned by Sam Donaldson

Associated Press | Posted: Thursday, June 30, 2011 6:14 am  

A wildfire burning on part of a southern New Mexico ranch owned by veteran newsman Sam Donaldson is forcing residents to evacuate. 

The fire nearly tripled in size over the past day to more than 43,000 acres Wednesday. It's burning in steep terrain. 

Lincoln County sheriff's deputies and staff with the New Mexico Livestock Board are helping residents and their animals evacuate the Alamo Canyon area. Residents were advised the day before to be prepared to leave. 

Crews are using bulldozers to cut fire lines and are conducting back-burns in an effort to rob fuel from the blaze. 

They're getting help from several single-engine planes and a C130 air tanker. 

The wildfire is believed to have been caused by lightning. 

Read more: St Louis Today

While firefighters are now fighting a new fire, the Las Conchas  fire is still threatening the Los Alamos lab based on how the wind blows or shifts during the day.  They estimate it is about 3% contained and so far firefighters have been successful in their efforts to keep it on the perimeter of the lab as only an acre of lab property has been burned and quickly put out.  Lab tests from an overflight to monitor the smoke has shown no chemicals in the smoke.  

NM fire poised to become largest in state history

P. SOLOMON BANDA, Associated Press, SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press 

Updated 01:46 p.m., Thursday, June 30, 2011

Smoke from the Las Conchas fire fills the sky near the Los Alamos Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., Tuesday, June 28, 2011. A vicious wildfire spread through the mountains above the northern New Mexico town on Tuesday, driving thousands of people from their homes as officials at the government nuclear laboratory tried to dispel concerns about the safety of sensitive materials. Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) — With firefighters bracing for another day of strong, erratic winds, a wildfire near the nation's premier nuclear weapons laboratory and a northern New Mexico community was poised Thursday to become the largest in state history.

But fire officials remained confident that the fire would not spread onto the Los Alamos National Laboratory or into the town of Los Alamos. Crews lit brush to create a 10-mile-long burned-out area between the fire and the facility that created the first atomic bomb.

"It's looking good right now," Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker said.

The fire has chewed up tens of thousands of acres a day since it started Sunday, charring a total of nearly 145 square miles, or 92,735 acres.

Crews have contained only 3 percent of the fire near Los Alamos. They were bracing for winds that could gust up to 40 mph Thursday afternoon.

"Every day we continue to see an active fire day, and with those winds it still brings the potential for spotting," fire information officer Sandra Lopez said.

"Those are the conditions these guys and gals that are out there on the fire lines fighting the fire are enduring," she said. "It's rugged, steep country. It's hot, and there are late-afternoon winds."

As firefighters hold the line along the lab's southern border, lab officials are trying to determine the extent of how experiments at the facility have been affected by a shutdown caused by the fast-moving fire.

Lab Director Charles McMillan said Wednesday teams will quickly figure out how things stand as soon as they're able to return.

Excerpt:  Read More at Westport News  

Update on New Mexico Fire Near Los Alamos Labs.

This is the latest update on the ongoing fire that is being pushed by 60 mph winds which has caused the evacuation of the 13,000 residents of the town of Los Alamos after the fire crossed the nearby Jemez Mountains.  Los Alamos is the home of the Department of Energy's Los Alamos Nuclear Lab where some 20,000 barrels of plutonium-bearing waste is stored in Area G waiting to be transported to long-term storage in southern New Mexico at the Carlsbad, NM, Waste Isolation Pilot Project site . Latest reports had fire 2 miles from the lab's Area G, and the winds blowing 60 mph can cause the fire to travel rapidly the two miles through the extremely dry areas.

The bulk of the lab's stockpile of highly-radioactive material is stored in structures specifically designed to withstand fire, lab officials say.  If the fire gets to the labs, this will be the 2nd time in 11 years it has happened.  Today teams from the National Nuclear Safety Administration are expected to arrive on-site  to help deal with any releases that might occur if the fire reaches the lab.

For those on the east coast who haven't seen tumbleweed burn, you cannot imagine how fast it can explode and set off a huge fire.  Light a match to a tumbleweed and see it in ashes in seconds with sparks flying everywhere.  Imagine a whole area of tumbleweed and the dry cedar (juniper back east), then add the 60 mph wind and any type of fire will soon spread quickly and become uncontrollable as the fire starts making its own wind inside the fire.  It is a very dangerous situation during the summer months and why there is usually a ban on open burning but some people ignore the law and burn anyway.

Because controlled burning of brush has been put off limits due to the environmentalists, the fires have grown over the years as they rapidly burn through the brush that has accumulated.  The environmentalists who want to protect various species have ended up with species' habitats being destroyed for miles and miles in a very hot fire that will grow into a huge fire storm compared to when they used to do controlled burns to get rid of the brush.  The lack of common sense in the environmental community is shocking.

A conservationist knows how to take care of the land for the benefit of all compared to the environmentalist who will put animal creatures over man including with drinking water.  Man and creatures can live together very easily when there is a balance, but balance is not a word that environmentalists want to hear.

We can only hope that this fire is brought under control very quickly and people can return to their homes and the Lab is safe.  You just never know which way the fire is going to burn if the winds shift going through the mountain passes.   This is a beautiful area of New Mexico as you drive I-25 north toward Colorado from Sante Fe and now the vegetation is  destroyed.  There is one thing we have noticed while living in the west and that is how green the ground looks in the spring after the winter snow melt compared to the trees that are blackened .  Nature has a way of rejuvenating itself starting with the grass on ground which should show people that controlled burns will never hurt the environment as much as these huge firestorms that destroy property and animals as it races across the landscape.

Posted at 01:36 PM ET, 06/28/2011Los Alamos nuclear lab to remain closed as New Mexico wildfire nears 

By Sarah Anne Hughes
A time exposure of the Las Conchas fire taken late Monday night in Los Alamos. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham - AP/Albuquerque Journal) 

As the Las Conchas wildfire continues to burn in New Mexico, officials from the Los Alamos National Laboratory say the radioactive and nuclear materials stored there are safe. 

A small fire broke out Monday on the nuclear laboratory’s property near Technical Area 49, a site formerly used for radioactive explosives testing and now used for training purposes, but it was quickly contained, according to a U.S. Forest Service press release. “About one acre burned and the Lab has detected no off-site releases of contamination,” the release said. The lab will remain closed to all non-essential employees on Wednesday. 

The wildfire has burned an estimated 49,000 acres of land south and west of the lab, according to the Forest Service. Los Alamos’s 12,000 residents are now under a mandatory evacuation order. 

The lab will hold a press conference with public safety officials Tuesday afternoon. According to a press release, no fires burned on lab property Monday night and all hazardous materials are “accounted for and protected.” 

Glenn Walp, a former Pennsylvania State Police commissioner and author of “Implosion at Los Alamos,” told ABC News that “potential is high for a major calamity if the fire would reach” the area where “approximately 20,000 barrels of nuclear waste” are stored. 

Excerpt:  Read More at Washington Post