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Residents of Los Alamos return to their homes; firefighters make major progress on Las Conchas Wildfire

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Photo from KOB-TV

And on the eighth day, the people of Los Alamos returned.

After nervously sitting through a week that saw the largest fire in New Mexico history lick right up against the outskirts of their town and the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), some 12,000 residents were allowed to return home Sunday morning (July 3). Later in the day, lab officials announced that LANL employees can return to work on Wednesday (July 6) after the wildfire shut down the facility for seven days.

“We’re grateful for the tremendous efforts of emergency responders that helped spare the lab and the town,” lab director Charles McMillan said in a statement.

A steady stream of cars and trucks re-entered Los Alamos throughout the day as fire and police officials felt confident enough that the Las Conchas Fire had been repelled sufficiently on its eastern end to allow residents to come back to their homes and businesses.

The wildfire is still only 11 percent contained as of Sunday but officials reported that there was “no major movement of the fire” Sunday, coming on the heels of a productive day Saturday (July 2) in which “firefighters made good progress” on the wildfire that has — at most recent count — burned 121,248 acres and destroyed 63 residences.

Here’s the latest map of the wildfire:

In addition to allowing residents to return, the American Red Cross announced that it had closed down two shelters (at the Santa Claran and Cities of Gold casinos) that had housed some Los Alamos residents who needed shelter.

The Albuquerque Journal reported that as residents returned to Los Alamos, “they were greeted by the [sight] of New Mexico National Guard soldiers waving hello as they passed the airport into Las Alamos proper and many cars honked, waved or yelled ‘thank you’ out their car windows.” The Journal quoted one woman who said, “I want to sleep in my own bed so very much.”

The last 36 hours of firefighting saw the tide turn in battling what one fire official called “a beast” of a fire. Efforts were helped by a light rain that finally fell over parts of the Las Conchas blaze on Saturday and Sunday. Fire officials received some hopeful news from the National Weather Service, which reports that the much-anticipated suumer monsoon season is coming at last to a state that has suffered through a parching drought for months.

“It looks like our summer monsoon season has started,” Ed Polasko wrote in a note Sunday morning to members of New Mexico’s Drought Monitoring Working Group.

Cooler temperatures and rising humidity levels in the past couple days have greatly contributed to firefighting efforts.

Gov. Susana Martinez released a statement Sunday saying flight monitors over the Los Alamos area conducted by the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency continue to show that “air quality flights have found no unusual or abnormal amounts of radiation in the areas affected by the Las Conchas fire.”

Also on Sunday, State Forestor Tony Delfin confirmed how the fire started: from a downed powerline.

According to a multi-agency investigation, officials say that back on June 26, an aspen tree was blown down onto nearby powerlines during a period of strong winds. The contact resulted in the line arcing, which then caused the tree to catch fire. Heat and flame caused the line to snap, which then allowed the burning ree to fall onto the ground where the fire spread into nearby vegetation.

In a rare moment of comic relief from the week-long firefight, LANL officials reported that a brief fire that was sparked by a squirrel was quickly extinguished. Fire chief Doug Tucker told reporters Saturday that a squirrel climbed up a power pole and was electrocuted, fell to the ground and started a small fire that burned about a half-acre.

 Firefighters are conducting mop-up at the Santa Clara Pueblo and the Pajarito Ski Area. The tribal governor at Santa Clara declared a state of emergency Thursday and at Parajito Mountain, this photo was taken showing some of the damage:

From Skipajarito photostream

Fire officials had some good news to report Sunday on wildfires in southern New Mexico.

The Donaldson Fire in Lincoln County is now 50 percent contained. “Suppression operations went well,” officials said in a report Sunday morning as firefighters conducted burnout operations with the assistance of air support retardant and water bucket drops. The report also mentioned that residents offered water from their private property to help the efforts of three air tankers, as a lack of water was posing a challenge for firefighters. The Donaldson Fire has burned more than 96,745 acres and has threatened 80 structures.

In Otero County, the Little Lewis Fire is now listed as 90 percent contained. Crews are now in the mop-up phase and were helped by a downpour Friday that saw a half-inch of rain fall over the 1,100 acres the fire has scorched.


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