 |
| Looking southwest from the Visitor's Center |
 |
| These photos were taken a month or so ago, before the fires |
Right now, Dripping Springs is closed because of a fire that has been burning in the Organs for almost two weeks. The fire was caused by a live-fire training exercise at Fort Bliss. Mind you, we are in the middle of a drought, we have high fire danger warnings (no open fires, etc.), and the springtime windy season is in full force. On the day that the exercises were held we were having wild winds with gusts up to 55 miles per hour.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
At night, we watch the flames from our house in the valley, and think about the animals up there.
7 comments:
We too have had several bad mountain fires over the last two weeks.The fires are set deliberately and are illegal,the last one, two nights ago was the worst yet and several households on the lower slopes had to be evacuated and their farm livestock moved to safety.If the fire had jumped the road we would have been in danger as we have dense woodland scrub land on the property.My son was the chief fire officer on duty and kept ringing me to keep me informed and at the worst point he told us to pack a bag in case we had to leave.
Besides the danger to life and property and the firemen who have to risk their lives to quench the fires,there is the death and destruction of the wildlife,as you mentioned in your post.
No one knows who set these fires,but accusations are rife and the guards are investigating as this one was so serious.
Our fires are out,I hope your fires are quenched soon.
Carolyn.
That is so sad. The fires not the area.
On a happier note....READ Fire Season, just released a few weeks ago, by Phillip Connors, an ex-editor from The Wall Street Journal, and a NM boy. Spends his summers watching for smoke and writing up on Apache Mountain in the Gila. Fascinating! Go to Amazon for it of course.
Matron, how scary for everyone. JC, yes--sad and really too bad, since the fire could have been avoided. Yet we have these droughts and fires get started, one way or the other.
Sandy, good old Branigan Library has the book, and I've added it to my list of books to read. Thanks for the recommendation. I'd love to hear about any other books you think I'd like!
Clair....THE site I check every day of fire season. Very easy to read and see what is happening in NM.
http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm
I do hope someone is holding the person or person responsible for making that irresponsible choice, accountable. If it were homes and businesses burning instead of wildlife and their habitat, heads would be rolling.
Such a shame.
~Lisa
Oh yeah, and if you want a New Mexico Specific Fire Announcement website, you'll want to have this one. I keep it on my side bar:
http://nmfireinfo.wordpress.com/
~Lisa
Post a Comment