Cold weather slows spread of big wildfires in New Mexico - Associated Press
The largest wildfire in North America came to a near standstill overnight amid light rain and frosty temperatures as firefighters scrambled Tuesday to clear flammable vegetation and deployed aircraft to douse smoldering forests.
The blaze that started about seven weeks ago in the Rocky Mountains foothills east of Santa Fe was 41% encircled by clearings and barriers that can stop a wildfire from spreading further.
Gusty winds continued to carry hot embers across barriers such as roadways, as fire crews raced to extinguish small spot fires.
The fire has consumed more than 486 square miles of timber, grassland and brush, with evacuations in place for weeks.
It's among six active large fires in the state that have burned across 536 square miles.
So far this year, wildland fires have burned across roughly 2,650 square miles of the U.S. That's roughly twice the average burn for this time of year, according to a national center for coordinating wildfire suppression. Climate change and an enduring drought are significant factors.
Wildland firefighters in New Mexico braced for the anticipated return of hot, dry and windy weather later this week.
"By Friday we're back to the same old critical fire weather that we have been experiencing for many, many days," said Stewart Turner, a fire behavior analyst for the U.S. Forest Service.
A wildfire on the outskirts of Los Alamos National Laboratory was 85% contained Tuesday. In the vicinity, Bandelier National Monument is preparing to reopen some areas to visitors Friday.
In southwestern New Mexico, a fire is burning through portions of the Gila National Forest and outlying areas.
Border agency plans vehicle pursuit policy to raise safety - By Elliot Spagat Associated Press
The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday that he is developing a new policy for vehicle pursuits with an eye toward increasing safety after a spate of deaths.
Commissioner Chris Magnus, who took over the nation's largest law enforcement agency in December, told The Associated Press that the policy is expected "soon" and will be made public. It will rely on extensive discussion with people inside and outside the Border Patrol, data analysis and a review of practices at other law enforcement agencies.
Magnus, a former police chief in Tucson, Arizona, informed Border Patrol agents of his plans during a visit to Texas' Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal border crossings, telling them it was "an issue that I want to look at."
"I appreciate that a lot of agents get very nervous when they hear that," Magnus said during an interview at a migrant holding facility in Donna, the site of extreme overcrowding last year. "That is not uncharacteristic of police officers in every department I've ever worked in, but you still have to come back to the reality that a professional law enforcement agency continually evaluates its tactics with one key thing in mind, and that is the safety of the public. And the public actually includes the agents themselves, who are often injured or killed in these pursuits."
CBP, as the Border Patrol's parent agency is known, has been working with the Police Executive Research Forum, a nonprofit advisory group that develops police policies. CBP has also informed some advocates who have been pressing for change.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents agents, said he couldn't comment without knowing specifics.
Although CBP doesn't disclose the number of Border Patrol car chases, the American Civil Liberties Union chapters in Texas and New Mexico said 22 people were killed in such pursuits last year, up from 14 in 2020 and two in 2019.
There have been 75 people killed in Border Patrol pursuits since January 2010, according to the ACLU, which based its numbers on CBP statements and news reports.
The agency's own numbers show 537 use-of-force incidents classified as "vehicle/vessel" involving CBP employees in the 12-month period through September, up from 210 the previous year and 161 the year before that. The agency is not more specific about how force was used.
Shaw Drake, an attorney for the ACLU of Texas, said the policy review was "certainly a welcome step in the right direction" but that it was difficult to comment without specifics.
The current policy, which is 19 pages long, is likely difficult for many agents to interpret and lacks specifics on how to weigh law enforcement benefits against risks when deciding whether to pursue someone, Drake said.
"What we see in practice is that agents will engage in pursuits really on the basis of zero information and under any circumstances," Drake said.
Earlier this month, Magnus said the Biden administration was disbanding evidence collection teams within the Border Patrol after critics said they were secretive and put the agency in an untenable position of investigating itself in cases that might involve agent misconduct. The "critical incident teams" will cease operations by Oct. 1.
Gov’s executive order aims to lighten teacher administrative burden - KUNM News, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico’s Governor signed an executive order yesterday, aiming to reduce the administrative burden on both teachers themselves and school administration amid higher teacher pay, and base salaries meant to retain teachers in the state.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that the order is not specific in what paperwork might or might not be slashed.
Advocates in support of the order say that cutting down on frequent training sessions and the pile of paperwork needed for some teachers to advance their teaching degree to a higher level need to be looked over.
Also included in the order is collaboration between teachers and the public Education department to discuss where burdensome requirements might exist and could be removed from the education system.
This comes on the heels of strained public education employees in New Mexico, with an exodus of teaching staff. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham resorted to the National Guard earlier this year to serve as substitute teachers.
Ruidoso property owners sue PNM over deadly blaze – KUNM News, Albuquerque Journal
The McBride fire burned just over 6,000 acres of land in Ruidoso last month––scorching 200 homes and killing two people.
Now, a lawsuit filed by three property owners in the area allege that Public Service Company of New Mexico is to blame for the deadly blaze.
As the Albuquerque Journal reports, a lawsuit contends that poorly maintained “powerline easements” are the issue.
In early April, high winds pushed over a tree onto PNM power lines and caused nearby brush and grass to ignite, according to the lawsuit. The fire stretched from Gavalan Canyon, through the village of Ruidoso, and into the Lincoln National Forest.
An elderly couple died in the flames when winds of up to 80 miles per hour and extremely dry conditions made the McBride fire unpredictable and ferocious.
Forest service officials say the cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The lawsuit seeks damages for destroyed property.
Elections regulators work to help fire evacuees and personnel vote – By Nash Jones, KUNM News
Four large active wildfires in New Mexico have now burned over 525-thousand acres. With early voting for the primary election underway, election regulators are working to ensure thousands of evacuees and fire personnel are able to cast a ballot.
Northern New Mexico’s Mora County has been hard hit by the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire, the largest burning in the country. Deputy elections clerk Vivian Trujillo says her office relocated as early voting began amid evacuation orders.
“But once we were able to come back, we brought in the system back from over there to over here, so that’s what we’re running here now,” she said. “So, we started off today.”
Trujillo says residents who've returned can vote in person, but those still displaced can request an absentee ballot be mailed to their current location, including an evacuation center.
The Secretary of State’s Office says firefighters and emergency responders are eligible to submit a waiver of secrecy form and fax or scan their ballot to their county clerk’s office.
Absentee ballots must be requested by next Thursday, June 2. That can be done online at NMVOTE.org.
The ballot can then be mailed back or dropped off at a polling location in the voter’s registered county.
3 Texans die in New Mexico highway crash involving towed SUV - Associated Press
Three West Texas residents were killed when the SUV they were riding in while it was being towed on a New Mexico highway rolled and they were ejected, state police announced Monday.
Eight people in all were in two SUVs headed east on Interstate 10 outside the small southern New Mexico city of Deming on Saturday night when both vehicles left the roadway for an unknown reason, state police said.
The three men who died were not wearing seat belts and died at the scene after they were ejected from the Nissan SUV they were riding in. The driver was badly injured and was airlifted to a hospital.
The four people riding in the GMC Yukon that was towing the Nissan were taken to hospitals by ambulance. The names and identities of the injured people were not released and state police said they did not know their conditions.
The dead were identified as 53-year-old Raymundo Cruz Herrera and 41-year-old Jose Luis Guerrero, both of El Paso, and 27-year-old Abraham Calderon Anthony, Texas.
State police said alcohol was not a factor in the accident.
Cooler New Mexico weather aids big wildfire fight -- for now - Associated Press
Nearly 3,000 firefighters in New Mexico kept the nation's largest active wildfire from growing on Monday as they took advantage of cooler weather before the return of more dangerous conditions later in the week.
"Overall, a good day," fire operations chief Alex McBath said Monday night. "Everything stayed within the fire lines."
Firefighters also expanded contingency firebreaks northeast of Santa Fe as forecasters warned that hotter, windier weather will return by Friday.
"Just because we've had a few good days of weather ... it doesn't mean we are out of the woods yet," San Miguel County Sheriff Chris Lopez said Monday night.
The blaze that started nearly seven weeks ago in the Rocky Mountains foothills southeast of Santa Fe remained just 40% contained Monday. It started as two fires and burned into one large conflagration now larger than the city of Los Angeles.
Flames have consumed more than 484 square miles of timber, grassland and brush and evacuations have been in place for weeks.
However, evacuation orders were relaxed in many areas and stretches of highway reopened south of Taos.
Along with cooler temperatures, fire crews were helped over the weekend by water-dropping helicopters and aircraft. Rising humidity was expected to help add moisture to the bone-dry fuels on forest floors for a few more days, forecasters said.
However, "by Friday we're back to the same old critical fire weather that we have been experiencing for many, many days," said Stewart Turner, a fire behavior analyst for the U.S. Forest Service.
Also on Monday, the U.S. Forest Service released a survey of vegetation and soil damage across 118 square miles of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains that burned in recent weeks, including public and private land.
About one-fifth of the area experienced high-severity burning that can lead to heavy and even dangerous erosion. Trees in those areas will take many years to recover without planting.
The fire is among five active large fires in the state and among 14 nationally, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The New Mexico fire accounts for nearly 60% of the 536 square miles consumed by wildfires in the U.S. so far this year.
Wildfires have broken out this spring in multiple states in the western U.S., where climate change and an enduring drought are fanning the frequency and intensity of forest and grassland fires. The number of square miles burned so far this year is far above the 10-year national average.
Fire crews continued to make progress toward cordoning off a wildfire on the outskirts of a U.S. national security research station at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
That fire in the wooded Jemez Mountains was 85% encircled by clearings and barriers that can stop a wildfire from spreading further, U.S. authorities said.
Bandelier National Monument announced plans to partially reopen its reserve for ancestral Native American settlements and culture to the public Friday after a weekslong closure. Campgrounds, backcountry areas and some trails will remain off-limits.
In southwestern New Mexico, a fire that is burning through portions of the Gila National Forest triggered new evacuations on Sunday in rural areas, as emergency crews labored to protect homes and outbuildings from advancing flames. That fire has burned across 230 square miles of forest and scrubland and continues to grow.