Updated at 12:04 p.m. MDT April 12, 2022
The Hermits Peak Fire 12 miles northwest of Las Vegas, New Mexico ran to the northeast Monday, moving out of the Santa Fe National Forest onto private land. The Incident Management Team said Monday afternoon it had burned 1,280 acres and a mapping flight that night put it at about 1,600 acres. Satellite data at 3:11 a.m. Tuesday indicated that it continued to spread significantly overnight. At about noon on Tuesday the Incident Management Team said it had burned 1,908 acres.
To see all articles about the Hermits Peak Fire on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, click HERE.
The San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office issued a mandatory evacuation for the communities of San Ignacio, Las Dispensas, Pendaries, Las Tusas, and Canoncito on Monday, April 11. An evacuation shelter is available at the old Memorial Middle School gym located at the corner of Legion and Old National in Las Vegas, NM.
The Incident Management Team reports that 600 structures are threatened and none have been destroyed. Resources assigned include 5 hand crews, 13 fire engines, and 3 helicopters for a total of 244 personnel.
The area continues to be under a Red Flag Warning Tuesday and Wednesday. According to the Red Flag Warning the winds will be 30 to 45 mph out of the southwest gusting to 65 mph Tuesday, and 25 to 35 mph from the west with gusts to 40 on Wednesday. The relative humidity will be 10 to 15 percent Tuesday, dropping to 4 to 10 percent Wednesday. The National Weather Service forecast for the fire area agrees. The wind will be very strong Tuesday and Wednesday, and will slow to 10 to 20 mph Thursday through Sunday. The direction will be generally from the west the entire period and the relative humidity will be about 9 percent.
Under these weather conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday firefighting aircraft may not be able to effectively and safely operate, and firefighters can’t take direction on the head of the fire.
Click to see all articles on Wildfire Today, including the most recent, about the Calf Canyon, Hermits Peak, and Cooks Peak fires.
The Santa Fe National Forest announced today that a prescribed fire planned for the Santa Fe municipal watershed has been postponed.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
Updated at 6:45 p.m. MDT April 11, 2022
At 1:30 p.m. Monday, strong winds pushing the Hermit Fire to the northeast prompted the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office, in coordination with the US Forest Service, to order an immediate full evacuation of Las Dispensas, Pendaries, Las Tusas, San Ignaciao, and a “high alert warning” for the Canoncito area.
At 2:02 p.m. Monday, satellites detected heat from the fire very close to the border of the Santa Fe National Forest as it was spreading to the northeast. If that rate of spread continued it most likely moved out of the National Forest onto private land later in the afternoon.
10:13 a.m. MDT April 11, 2022
The Hermits Peak Fire 12 miles northwest of Las Vegas, New Mexico grew by a couple of hundred acres Sunday, and early Monday morning was estimated at 728 acres. A mapping flight Sunday night had to be cancelled due to heavy cloud coverage.
The southern one-third of the fire is held by completed fireline. The remainder is in very steep, rocky, rugged terrain.
A Type 2 Incident Management Team, Southwest Team 4 with Incident Commander Aaron Hulburd, is slated to assume command on Monday morning, April 11.
Voluntary evacuations were issued Sunday for three communities north and northeast of the fire: San Ignacio, Las Dispensas and Pendaries.
Almost all of New Mexico and much of the central and southern plains are under a Red Flag Warning Monday. In New Mexico it will be in effect at least through Tuesday and a Fire Weather Watch has been issued for Wednesday.
The Red Flag Warning predicts 20-foot winds out of the southwest at 25 to 35 mph with gusts to around 50 mph Monday afternoon, and on Tuesday southwest to west 30 to 45 mph with gusts to 65. Wednesday will bring northwest winds 25 to 35 mph with gusts to 45 in the afternoon.
The relative humidity will range from 9 to 13 percent Monday
afternoon, 10 to 15 percent Tuesday, and 4 to 8 percent Wednesday.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
Hermits Peak is going Type 1! Reports of structures impacted now. Man, they really screwed this burn up!
Evacuations both possible and mandatory issued for numerous communities, power shut off in several communities:
https://www.koat.com/article/hermits-peak-fire-san-miguel-county/39684388
Thats why they close the forest roads and don’t let folks gather firewood by streams and roads. Oh yeah, you can’t drive off two tracks to gather firewood either. The forests have very few law dogs and so does the state and counties. Lots of blown down trees here in northern NM but the forest roads have been closed since the end of December. I would be all for making use of trees, but when I travel up to the mountains, I see that people have still dump their trash and are making UTV and Bike tails wherever they can. I would say go ahead and harvest some timber as long as it is along all the steep terrain. I am sure you will find there are few vehicles that can do this. People like wilderness areas, but it is illegal to harvest wood in wilderness areas. No roads anymore. The FS high payed folks are reaping in the federal money now and charging their folks time to the fire. That way they will use it for something else. Just tell the truth.
No, no, no prescribed burns during a drought, dry, windy NM. Opt for grooming the forest & making better use of the wood for firewood, building material , mulch, etc. Create jobs for groomers so we won’t have to fight wild fires. Save the habitat for wildlife!!!!!
Groomers? The Forest isn’t a pet. Rakes also dont help.
Go/No Go It is easier to light a burn than not to light one.
It is easy to let the ‘pressure to produce’ override the signals (ignore them or don’t look for them) indicating that a burn may not be best executed that day or even that year.
Don’t know how the forest service could have made the decision to do a controlled burn after a dry winter and in April which is often a windy month.
Julia, if your goal is to burn your yard so all the dry grass is gone, you don’t do it during a snowstorm. You do it when you’ve got weather conditions and fuel conditions that are conducive to grass burning. The experts know when a little wind is a good thing and how much wind is a bad thing.
It doesn’t seem like the “experts” do know.
@Robert. Try here for a definition….
https://www.nwcg.gov/course/ffm/fire-behavior/82-midflame-windspeed
Thanks JR, we learn something every day if we’re paying attention. My background is aviation ( including tankers ) but this def. did not play. Thanks again for the leg up.
Thanks JR. To expand on that — fire weather stations usually monitor the wind at 20’ above the ground, while standard weather stations generally do it at 30’.
I have tried hard to define a ” twenty- foot wind ” but nothing comes to mind.