The NMNational Guard is busy helping with the fires near Alamagordo, as is the California Air NG.
All those fighting and helping with the fires are in our prayers....
and a fire on Sam Donaldson's ranch has burnt 43000 acres and spread to the the Apache reservation. The last time this happened, we had to make evacuation plans for the hospital, just in case...the area is mountainous, and the fires can "flash" with the wind down the narrow canyons, so they can spread easily. And you can't keep people in a hospital when there is smoke in the air...some of our employees quit to fight the fires back then, and we still could see the scars/deforestated areas from a previous fire nearby.
The lowlands tend to be drier and have trees mainly around the rivers, so there is a danger of grass fires, but in the mountains, the tall trees often catch like tinder...
The Mescalero used too have their own fire fighting group, who often left to fight forest fires all over the west, but the BIA shut them down due to budget cuts in 2008...
Actor Jay Tavare, whose birthparents were White Mountain Apache and Navajo, has a report about attending an "honor your life" meeting in Mescalero, and writes about it and the nearby fire on Huffblog.
Fireinformation blog here.
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