The one-year anniversary of the start of the Hermits Peak fire, which later merged with the Calf Canyon fire, is a milestone worth recognizing.
For Shaun Sanchez, forest supervisor for the Santa Fe National Forest from Mora County, New Mexico, the memories of the state’s wildfires in 2022 affect him personally and professionally.
“I was in Washington D.C. when it broke out and (had) that feeling of helplessness,” Sanchez told KRQE. “My parents were evacuated a couple of times, two different instances, and not even being able to be here to help them evacuate was a pretty tough, pretty difficult thing to deal with.”
The fire brought him back to New Mexico to facilitate some necessary changes.
“Did we learn from what occurred this last year? I would say we have,” Sanchez said.
An investigation into the largest fire in the state’s history has already led to several changes, including the approval process for prescribed burns, as smoldering from a prescribed burn in January 2022 ignited in April leading to the Calf Canyon Fire, according to KRQE.
“In the past, there might have been longer-term approvals, a week-long approval up to month-long approvals to conduct a burn, now we’re only doing day-by-day approvals,” Sanchez said.
Fencing and additional equipment will also be utilized during prescribed burns. Forest crews will also use technology like infrared systems with drones to locate heat sources, KRQE reported.
When prescribed burns are conducted additional crews will be on standby within 30 minutes, and checks will be completed daily to ensure the fire is contained. Additionally, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, recently signed into law Senate Bill 21 which bans prescribed burns when the National Weather Service issues a red flag warning. Legally, the new state law doesn’t apply to federal agencies, but Sanchez said the federal officials have agreed to follow it.
“The red flag warning – our state partners don’t want to be burning, they don’t want us to be burning, the community doesn’t want us to be burning, well we don’t need to be burning,” Sanchez said.
The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire burned more than 300,000 acres before it was contained, KRQE reported.
