Above: Map of OK Bar Fire. The red line was the perimeter at 2229 MDT April 28, 2018. The yellow line was the perimeter about 20 hours before.
The OK Bar Fire in Southern New Mexico consumed another 7,817 acres Saturday to bring the total up to 37,067. Most of the growth was on the south side where it is now 8 miles north of the international border.
The area is under a Red Flag Warning that expires Monday night. Forecasters expect 25 to 35 mph southwest winds with gusts to 45 mph or higher and relative humidities reaching into the single digits. Strong southwest winds will continue through mid week.
The OK Bar Fire is not being fully suppressed and information about the incident is not easy to find. It is still not listed at InciWeb or on the official fire information site for New Mexico. Even though it has been growing by thousands of acres each day since it started April 22 the national situation report keeps saying, “Last narrative report unless significant activity occurs.”
From today’s Inciweb posting: “The [OK Bar] fire is entirely on the Diamond A Ranch and has burned primarily on private land in addition to some BLM and State Land leases. Fire management has been included in the ranch’s Resource Management Plans since 1996.”
Sounds like the fire managers are doing what the landowner requested.
Per Teresa’s comment ; it is interesting that information on this fire [OK BAR] and perhaps a few previous fires have not been contemporaneously posted on official sites ,like INCIWEB. It seems as if this is perhaps intentional ,i.e. not keeping the public informed ! The behavior and ignorance of some of our Federal agencies seems to be getting beyond the pale . Administrators in these agencies seem not to care about the damage to private and public lands, and the health hazards to people from infants to the elderly . Concurrently , we have the situation wherein the responsible agencies have greatly diminished our Wildfire control capabilities, by reducing the available resources. In particular, the reduction of Air Tankers and helicopters dramatically puts more people,animals,and property at risk . Do they not admit that the drought in the Western US this year , is already at an alarming level ?[ [red flag warning in 10 states ,today] If this situation was given one word, “PATHETIC”.
Bill,
Thanks for the explanation of under the radar fires and update on fire burning in Southern NM (about 250 miles from me). I saw it listed on NIFC site and, just like you said, couldn’t find anymore information on it. Is that lack of information standard for fires that are allowed to burn in remote areas?
I have developed health issues over the past few years that are exacerbated by wildfire smoke and wood burning so I try to monitor fire activity in the Southwest pretty closely. (Seems like smoke is always coming in from somewhere.). The smoke seems to be more toxic with industrial pollutants and heavy metals each year. Is that possible? If so, do you have previous posts as to why?
Teresa
I don’t have an answer to your specific question, but here is a link to articles on Wildfire Today tagged “smoke”.