During the summer of 2011, which happens to be one of the worst droughts on record for those of us here in the United States Southwest, fires erupted all over causing mass destruction in many states. I reside in Albuquerque NM, and we were very fortunate here in the city. No large fires. A few small ones sprang up in the Rio Grande Bosque, but were quickly put out with little damage. However, Albuquerque, as well as a large part of the state, were victims from the mass amount of smoke and ash from the Arizona Wallow fires in June 2011. The first picture below is one I took from my back yard late one afternoon. No, it is not a setting sun… it is pink due to the thick smoke in the air. Ash covered everything for several days, choked our swamp coolers, and caused a large increase of asthma related problems in the hospitals. Below that are three photos I took from the north side of Albuquerque of the smoke pouring from the fires in Los Alamos (the Las Conchas fire), which threatened the nuclear lab facility there (home of the A-Bomb.) Los Alamos NM is approximately 70 miles how the crow flies. More…
Tag Archives: Wallow Fire
Amazing collection of dramatic photos from NM and AZ fires Reply
Amazing collection of dramatic photos from NM and AZ fires.
A firefighter walks through heavy smoke near the Los Alamos fire, June 29, 2011 JAE C. HONG AP
Flames from the Las Conchas fire burn in the hills above Los Alamos National Laboratory, a nuclear facility June 27, 2011 JAE C. HONG AP
The Las Conchas fire burns near the Valles Caldera National Preserve near Los Alamos, New Mexico, June 27, 2011 EDDIE MOORE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL ZUMAPRESS
Los Alamos, New Mexico, June 29, 2011 JAE C. HONG AP
Hotshot crew members prepare to work in the Pajarito Mountain ski area, June 28, 2011 JAE C. HONG AP
Flames consume vegetation on the Jemez Mountains, near Los Alamos, New Mexico, June 28, 2011 EDDIE MOORE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL ZUMAPRESS
Los Alamos residents leave the area on June 27, 2011, as the Las Conchas fire encroaches on the city ADOLPHE PIERRE-LOUIS ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL ZUMA PRESS
The sun shines through smoke from the Las Conchas fire burning near Los Alamos, N.M., on June 27, 2011 SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN AP
A slurry bomber flies over the Pacheco Canyon fire as it burns north of Santa Fe, N.M., on June 18, 2011 EDDIE MOORE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL ZUMAPRESS
A burned structure is seen north of Raton, N.M., on June 16, 2011 RICK BOWMER AP
A sky crane near Luna, N.M., fills up with a fire retardant on June 14, 2011 Matt York AP
Fire officials look over a map of the Wallow wildfire in Eagar, Ariz., on June 22, 2011 JOSHUA LOTT THE NEW YORK TIMES
Smoke from the Pacheco Canyon wildfire rises behind the Buffalo Thunder Casino, Pojoaque NM, June 19, 2011 BRIAN SNYDER REUTERS
These tents in Eagar, Ariz., provide an incident command center as well as a place for firefighters to sleep MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ AP
A firefighter does battle with the Wallow fire in Nutrioso, Ariz., on June 10, 2011 MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ AP
Fire-crew members sharpen their tools as they prepare for a back-burn operation to slow the spread of the Wallow fire JAE C. HONG AP
Smoke rises around the Lee Valley recreational area on June 12, 2011, as the Wallow fire continues to burn in Big Lake, AZ KEVORK DJANSEZIAN GETTY IMAGES
The sun sets behind smoke from the Wallow fire Luna, NM, June 13, 2011 Matt York AP
A roadside in Springerville, Ariz., on June 8, 2011 ERIC THAYER GETTY IMAGES
Emily Shupe comforts her 18-month-old son Jax as the family prepares to evacuate to Phoenix from Springerville, Ariz., on June 7, 2011 MARCIO JOSE SANCHEZ AP
Firefighters sleep between trucks at the command post for the Wallow fire in Springerville, Ariz., on June 8, 2011 ERIC THAYER GETTY IMAGES
Police officers direct cars as residents leave Springerville, Ariz., on June 7, 2011 JOSHUA LOTT REUTERS
The fire fills the sky behind Robert Joseph, 64, Luna NM, June 6, 2011 JAE C. HONG AP
Lines grow around Pacheco Canyon fires, Santa Fe NM. Photos. Wallow Fire AZ update. Reply
Sat. June 25, 2011
The forest fires burning above Santa Fe and on the Arizona-New Mexico state line grew slightly Friday as firefighters continued to lengthen their containment lines.
The Pacheco Fire reported a week ago in the Santa Fe National Forest is now estimated at 6,800 acres and 18 percent contained. The fire not two miles north of the Santa Fe ski basin is burning in mixed conifer and ponderosa pine in steep and rugged terrain.
Much of the increase in fire size since Friday is due to a successful overnight burnout operation, a statement released by the Central West Zone Incident Management Team Saturday morning said.
The fire was described as less active on Friday than on Thursday with most of the activity on the north side in the drainage south of Rancho Viejo. Minimal movement was seen on the south side of the fire.
Winds pushed the smoke plume eastward, and the fire continues to threaten the Santa Fe watershed and ski area, the Tesuque Peak communications site and tribal lands of Nambé and Tesuque pueblos. The fire is largely within the Pecos Wilderness.
Large sections of the Santa Fe National Forest are now closed to public access with the imposition of State Three fire restrictions. Open fires and smoking outside buildings and vehicles are banned in the areas that remain open.
Click on image below to enlarge. Clicking again will then scroll through pictures.
Wallow Fire update, AZ
Fire bosses in Arizona say most of the activity on the Wallow Fire Friday was on the south side. There favorable conditions allowed firefighters to begin working on ground lines on the fire perimeter as they try to keep the blaze from crossing the Blue River.
The Wallow Fire, which started May 29, has now grown to near 535,000 acres and ranks as the largest in Arizona history.
Winds on Saturday were forecast to reach 17-20 mph with gusts to 30 mph, enough for torching and short-range spotting on the east side of the fire, segments of which are now in New Mexico.
“These conditions are similar to those that existed when the fire has made large runs,” an update from incident commanders said.
Smoke from AZ and NM fires carries ash, poison – poorest air quality in ABQ history Reply
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –Wildfires are burning around New Mexico and it’s getting harder for residents to avoid all the smoke.
Smoke has been so thick in recent days that it’s caused health problems for many residents.
“It can make peoples’ eyes water. It can make their throats burn. It can be a real nuisance for some people that seem to be a little allergic to it,” Air Quality Meteorologist Jeff Stonesifer said.
When a big hot fire throws massive plumes of smoke into the air, the smoke will ride the prevailing winds that typically blow from southwest to northeast. The smoke cloud contains steam, carbon dioxide, compounds of nitrogen, partially burned particles called hydrocarbons, tiny pieces of dirt and ash and small amounts of poison like carbon monoxide.
The very thick smoke over the past few days has brought the poorest air quality in the history of Albuquerque.
“Your nose and your lungs can filter out the larger particles, but they can’t filter out the smaller particles,” Stonesifer said. “I’m not too worried about the carbon monoxide. I’m more worried about the particulate matter and the little bit of toxic stuff in there. You know, cigarette smoke causes health problems too and that has a lot of the same stuff.”
Air quality experts still point to visibility as being the main indicator of how poor local air quality is because you can observe the changes much quicker than monitoring devices can detect and report it.
Source: KOAT News 7 | 1:40 pm MDT June 15, 2011
Here are a few videos taken from my home in Albuquerque of the smoke which has been moving in and out of the city.
Amazing photos of Arizona’s Wallow Fire Reply
These images of Wallow Fire came from a local Albuquerque news station’s website. They were uploaded by a viewer, and here is the description provided by the uploader:
The Wallow Fire on 6-4-2011, Taken from Luna Lake @ fire camp,By my daughter Sarah. We were delivering fire supplies.
Click on the image to view the full size.
Fires still raging in Arizona, approaching New Mexico: “Perfect Storm” brewing with increasing winds and heat Reply
(Reuters) – More than 1,000 firefighters converged on this village in the Gila National Forest on Saturday as a massive wildfire that scorched eastern Arizona moved to a quarter mile from the New Mexico border.
With the winds picking up, temperatures rising and humidity low, the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for this sparsely populated corner of the state, indicating grave fire danger.
“Everything is ripe for a perfect storm,” Fire Information Officer Sean Johnson told Reuters.
“There’s not enough hose and water to put out a fire in these conditions.”
Firefighters raced to set controlled fires, designed to deny the advancing wall of flames the fuel it needs, “so we can manage the fire instead of the fire managing us,” Johnson said.
The fire has forced some 10,000 people from their mountain homes and charred more than 600 square miles of mostly pine-studded forest land in Arizona.
Although the so-called Wallon Fire has not entered New Mexico yet, its smoke has hung ominously in the skies over some parts of the state for days.
On Saturday, the Albuquerque Isotopes minor league baseball club was forced to push up its game against the Nashville Sounds by three hours to get it in before an new wave of smoke rolled in from the southwest.
Weather forecasts call for wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour to buffet the already hard-hit area, with low humidity adding to the already bone-dry conditions.
“We’ve had this scenario before in this fire,” Flory told Reuters. “We’re just going to have to do our best with the conditions in front of us.”
Fire officials said progress had been made against the monster blaze that has raged in and around the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest since May 29. As of early Saturday, the fire was 6 percent contained and more was expected to be announced later in the day.
The easing of high winds that had rapidly spread the flames for several days earlier this week had allowed a fleet of water-dropping helicopters to work to douse the blaze, and a DC-10 supertanker carrying payloads of fire retardant took to the air on Thursday.
Ground crews worked around the clock with bulldozers to cut buffer zones between the fire’s edge and populated areas and to set backfires designed to draw flames away from homes.
Flory said the helicopter crews, too, were taking part in backfire operations, dropping “aerial ignition” canisters into remote, hard-to-reach stretches of forest behind fire lines.
Their job was eased as the blaze, which ranks as Arizona’s second largest on record, began burning out of the heavy timber into areas with fewer trees, fire officials said.
The latest aerial infrared images of the fire showed it has consumed nearly 409,000 acres, or almost 639 square miles. The Rodeo-Chediski fire charged nearly 469,000 acres in 2002, making it the largest in Arizona history.
The Forest Service reports that the fire has destroyed 29 homes in eastern Arizona, including 22 homes in the town of Greer, a small mountain retreat of about 200 dwellings. Another five residences were damaged and 35 nonresidential buildings have been lost.
No serious injuries have been reported.
Fire crews have so far kept flames from encroaching on two larger nearby towns of Eager and Springerville, ordered fully evacuated on Wednesday.
The towns are home to roughly 8,000 permanent residents combined, accounting for most of those displaced in the White Mountains region, a popular vacation destination for Arizonans seeking to escape the summer heat.
Flory said an estimated 1,900 people already had been forced from their homes by the time Springerville and Eager were evacuated.
Springerville Mayor Eric Baca, 38, who has lived in the area his entire life, called the fire “a punch in the gut.”
“This is devastating,” he told Reuters by telephone. “This couldn’t have happened to a more pristine area. This is our lifeblood … and now a lot of it is gone.”
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Source: Reuters
Photos by REUTERS/Joshua Lott
YouTuber downloads this video taken in HI of fire tornado and claims they shot the footage in AZ 2
If you googled “fire tornados arizona” and came here, that’s what this post was original titled…
Below was my original post. Thought this was fascinating footage. Then a fellow blogger pointed out that the footage was actually taken from Hawaii and is available on National Geographic, and provided the link in the comment. Sure as hell, it is.
It’s one thing to download and reupload a video you wish to share and distribute – as long as you do not take claim of it and provide as much as you know on it’s origin. Sometimes it is hard with so many videos going viral and info not passed on through each uploader. But in the case of this video, this person completely falsified everything about it. They added in their own “redneck” yelling at each other – which is not in the original video. Then claim to have taken the footage in Arizona.
Fake people suck….
Click here to view showing this same video, filmed in Hawaii, with Nat Geo narration on National Geographic website
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UPDATE: Thur. Sept 22, 2011
Just now took a peek at the fake video, and that account has been closed by YouTube for copyright infringement. Imagine that….
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Close-up and incredible footage of tornado fire rising up through the smoke.
Warning: This was taken by a mother and son who are constantly yelling and bickering at each other. I muted the video about 10 seconds into it. You may wish to do the same. It is worth watching… muted.
New fire 8 miles east of Flagstaff, “Hill Fire”, evacuations Reply
New fire erupted approximately 8 miles east of the center of Flagstaff. People, homes currently being evacuated. Winds at 19 mph impeding fighting the fire.
Beautiful yet eerie pictures taken of the red sun and smoke-filled skies in Albuquerque NM, from Arizona fires 1
For several days now, Albuquerque has been blanketed with a thick layer of smoke originating from the massive fires in Arizona. The city has been on health alert, and hospitals have seen a jump in respiratory-related visits. The smell of burning wood is much like the smell of a campfire and has permeated our both sinuses and homes. The ash is leaving a light layer both inside and out. Normally, the visibility is literally as far as ones eyes can see – which is to the horizon depending upon the view. For the past few days, the visibility has dropped to 3 miles and under. The magnificent Sandia Mountains which border the east end of our city, have completely disappeared under the layer of smoke.
Amidst all the health problems arising from the smoke, the light filtering has created some magnificent photo opportunities. Please remember that in all these pictures, there are no clouds in the sky – which is normal for Albuquerque. All that you see is smoke…
The first picture was taken by me from my backyard tonight at approximately 7:15 PM. The sun was not due to set until 8:20. I did not use any filters, no special settings, nor was this touched up in Photoshop. The red coloring is from the smoke layer filtering out certain color wavelengths. Which is also the reason for the various colors in the rest of the images. The video above was also taken at the same time, same place.
And here is a picture taken today, June 7th, 2011, in Arizona of the smoke from the Wallow Fire…
Footage of BLOOD RED sun over Albuquerque NM due to smoke from AZ fires Reply
I have never seen such a red sun before when this high in the sky. No filter was used. This is the actual color tonight, Tues. June 7th 2011. You can see the smoke in front of the sun when zoomed in. These are not clouds – today was a cloudless day – just completely covered with smoke off and on all day.
Here is a still shot I took as well.
Albuquerque NM completely engulfed in smoke from the massive AZ fires 1
UPDATE: JUNE 7, 2011
I have never seen such a red sun before when this high in the sky. No filter was used. This is the actual color tonight, Tues. June 7th 2011. You can see the smoke in front of the sun when zoomed in. These are not clouds – today was a cloudless day – just completely covered with smoke off and on all day.
Here is a still shot I took as well.
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JUNE 6, 2011
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – That thick, smoky haze is going to be in New Mexico for a while and it has caused the Environmental Health Department to issue another health advisory.
The smoke from a massive wildfire in eastern Arizona, as well as periodic dust storms across New Mexico, could cause people to have difficulty breathing.
Officials said the elderly, infants, people who have asthma or heart disease and even healthy people may also be affected by the haze.
Officials with the national weather service many other parts of the state are experiencing high the haze much worse then in Albuquerque.
“If you think it’s going to be bad in Albuquerque go just 50 miles to the west and in some areas can just be really extreme,” Kerry Jones said. “So unfortunately the pattern is just not going to be working in our favor in the coming days.”
Haze levels which substantially compromise visibility warrant an Air Quality Health Advisory. San Juan Basin Health Department advises that individuals in our community, particular those identified above, take health precautions when they notice the following condition:
- If visibility is less than 5 miles in your neighborhood due to a wildfire or controlled burn, smoke has reached levels that are potentially unhealthy. ** CURRENTLY, VISIBILITY IS 3 MILES IN ABQ NM ***
Here is some footage I just took at 6:30 pm and 6:45 pm tonight:
