Fire Information: (575) 388-8300

Acres: 5,740 Start Date: May 11, 2014
Cause: Human Location: 10 miles north of Silver City, NM
Containment: 70% Fuels/Topography: Timber, grass/rugged terrain
Total personnel: 706

Yesterday's Actions: Crews continued their progress mopping up and patrolling existing fire lines. The increased warmer temperatures, low humidity and higher wind resulted in increasing fire behavior with more aggressive burning as the day progressed. Fire managers were concerned that fuels remaining inside the fire perimeter and the winds anticipated during the next five days could create the risk of spot fires outside existing lines. Crews have been identified and prepositioned, as a contingency, along the Mimbres Valley area to provide initial attack if needed. Residents may see an increase in resources in this area. An information booth was manned at San Lorenzo in the Mimbres Valley to answer questions about the fire's progress.

Today's Actions: Weather forecasters assigned to the incident management team have cautioned that today will see even more wind than previous days along with single digit humidity and temperatures about 7-8 degrees above normal. These conditions will result in red flag warnings by afternoon today and likely continue until Wednesday. Firefighters are concentrating on patrolling the fire lines and mopping up any hot spots within 300 feet of the line. Meanwhile, other crews and engines have been assigned to initial attack responsibilities and stationed along State highway 35. Residents in the Mimbres Valley and surrounding area should expect to see these resources today and over the next few days. An information station will again be operating at San Lorenzo.

A Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) team began work today to assess post fire needs and begin rehabilitation of the burned area.

Weather: A period of critical fire weather began yesterday and continues for the next five days. Temperatures are expected to continue to increase over the next few days and red flag conditions will develop. Today's temperature is expected to reach into the 80 degree range and winds will become westerly.

Smoke: Westerly winds will bring additional smoke over the next few days to the Rio Grande Valley and other points east of the Signal Fire. Anyone with sensitivities to smoke might want to consider taking measures to mitigate for increased smoke.

Beginning today information updates will be published once daily unless events require more frequent releases.

Information for this fire, including maps and photos, can be found at:
http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/3864/
http://nmfireinfo.com

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