Midnight fire grows to nearly 4,000 acres
By Stephanie Muñiz
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RIO ARRIBA COUNTY, New Mexico (KOAT) — The Midnight fire is nearing 4,000 acres. Monday morning air support and air tankers could be seen dropping retardant on the fire.
“All of them had to stop flying around 1:00 today because of the winds. It was no longer safe, nor is the water or retardant or drops effective in those kinds of winds,” said Celeste Prescott Midnight Fire, Public Information Officer.
Those erratic winds caused the fire to spread both north and south.
Prescott said, “When winds are swirling or fires are spotting ahead and it’s very dangerous, you can imagine if you’re working a fire’s edge and embers fly over you and start another fire, then you’ve got fired on two sides of you.”
Because of the rugged terrain and limited cell service constant updates are hard to get.
“Our reports we can only get when they have a chance to get on the radio and when communications are clear enough to understand them,” Prescott said.
According to fire crews, a previous prescribed burn in 2019 has helped to limit the spread.
There are around 300 people working with more on the way but the team says they are also sharing their resources with the north zone of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fires.
Prescott said, “We’re really trying to divide and conquer to catch all of these ones before they turn into another type one incident while still managing the type one incidents, of course.”
The Incident Management Team says the cause of the fire is under investigation.
However, they did confirm it was not caused by a prescribed burn or previous burn piles like the Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon fires.
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