[Editor's Note: This got waylaid by an expectation that someone else was going to write this up, and they didn't. This author took notes, but gave them to other person who failed to do the job.Therefore this is being written from a recording of the presentation and the PDF of the presentation, thanks to the presenter. And apologies for it being well beyond the time it should have been reported.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

On April 12, 2025, in preparation for what was expected to be a bad fire season locally due to extended drought, with little to no precipitation during the winter season, Douglas Cram, the New Mexico State University Extension Service Forest and Fire specialist, presented this program at the Grant County Administration Center Commissioners' Chambers. He also gave credit to Jessica Swapp Massengill, Grant County Agriculture and 4-H agent and Michelle Greeman, Family and Consumer Services and 4-H.

Cram explained that the purpose of the NMSU Extension Service is to provide people in New Mexico and beyond with research-based based knowledge and programs to improve the quality of their life. " I really try to focus on that today. I think you'll come away with a handful of things you can go home and do to improve the quality of your life, especially in regards to wildland fire. We're going to do a little bit of fire history.You've probably heard that over the last 25 years, we've been telling that story a lot, but it's important for this idea of Learning to Live with Fire. It's somewhat of a mind shift versus the suppression area we've had. We'll talk about wildfire evacuations and how to be prepared for that. It's kind of like two different things. Talk about fire hardening your yard and your home. We certainly have fire. We have a fire planet. We have a fire continent. We have a fire region."

Cram gave some history of fire on Earth and locally."It shows historically, let's say, over the last 10,000 years, on the lower 48 here, how often fire burns, right? We have lot of fire here New Mexico, certainly our national forest country in the Gila here, for sure, Sacramento, Manzanos, Carson, Santa Fe National Forests. Fire was frequent on its landscape for less than 1000 years, but we've had fire for the last 420 million years, and it's not going away. We had this from about 1910 intensely about 1960 this era of fire suppression, where we had a big blow up burn in Montana. In 1910 Forest Service was putting it out, and Congress said, 'Oh, you guys put out forest fires. Yeah, alright, keep doing that, right?' It was a sort of European notion of fire that is all bad. We should put it out as fast as possible. And we understand the reason for that, in terms of our homes and our livelihoods, right? But not maybe so much in terms of the ecology, right? At the same time, we didn't put fire back until the 1960s when the Park Service said, You know what? I think fire belongs in the system. And so that kind of was the end of that 50-year exclusive period of fire suppression. Were here today because of your homes. And then you mix in the climate, right? We already have this arid, semi arid climate in right? I It's ripe for wildland fire,"

Cram noted that is has been a dry winter and spring. 
"With La Nina the jet streams go north.The dry winter is foreshadowing for it to be a potentially a horrendous fire season. We did get some rain last week ago today. It was great. My kids were camping at City of Rocks. It was cold rain, so that was nice. But you have three, four months of of drought, you know, you can have a deluge and within a week or two, you're right back when you started. Historically, our fire season, with the wind starts in March, then in April, May and June."

He showed the ERC map in the southwest, which is the energy release component index. How much energy would be released if a wildland fire started. "'You may be able to see here we're in the 90th percentile, right? That's not where we want to be at this time of year. Definitely we're a full month ahead of where we could be in a dry year. So it's not looking good. Due to temperatures over the next three months, they are predicting that our monsoons should arrive in July. So that's good, but we have to get there first."

Cram moved on to fire history. He said Earth has all the components as a fire planet. ."It's particularly lightning. Over the last 25 years, we've actually put up a couple different satellites, and this one is the geostationary one, so we can stay parked right over Silver City and Grant County, and monitor the county the entire year, and we've been able to calculate a nice estimation, eight and a half million lightning flashes a day, every single day on the planet. Now, obviously that's not equally spaced out, but our lightning season is coming. I just point this out again. Is this idea that we live on this fire planet, in this fire region. We can do a lot to try and deny sparks, such as not dragging chains, but we can't stop lightning. Just a map of what lightning looks like on the continental United States. We think that lightning can't strike twice in the same place, but here's evidence that it strikes twice, and you may see this in our fire ecology history."

He showed a photo of a ponderosa pine from Arizona that was 475, years old. When it was finally cut down the rings showed that it had survived 31 fires over 336 years. Each one of the white lines, or the black lines showed that a fire occurred.

Cram pointed out the fire in the tree. If it had had a crown fire it would kill the tree. But instead, it was the lowest grade fires, plus the fire start, and the tree was alive before and after this fire start. So on average, two and a half to five years apart the tree experienced fire. It's great historical evidence over the last kind of short period, 336, years.

"We had a lot of fire in this part of the world," he said, showing some pictures from the Gila provided by the Forest Service in 1927. "Granted, these trees are cut down, but the only way, I'm also a forester, the only way to get trees this large is not to have a lot of competition. The point is, this was frequent fire country."

In the Gila every four to eight years, historically, it had fires."We're talking about surface fires and low surface fires."

He talked about the fire in Paradise, CA, which may have started in the morning from a downed power line. But then the winds drove it through neighborhoods. At 6:30 in the morning before the fire, but by eight o'clock, it started on the edge of Paradise by the end of the day 18,000 structures were destroyed. Eighty-five fatalities occurred that one day.

"We have a Red Flag Day today, but the winds are predicted to be not too bad. But if the fuels heavy, they're going to dry, for sure, but it's kind of hard to predict,

He also talked about a fire in Colorado. Someone came to their home and said: "You gotta go, and the person says : 'I'm not leaving without my pet,' and this fire is coming. The neighbor left and the resident died because they're still there looking after their pet. We all get that we're attached to our pets, but you have to make that decision on when is it worth it to stay? And that wasn't a wildland urban interface, like what many of us here live in. The good news is you can do something about this, instead of thinking it is just completely out of our control.

"We've had our own fires in New Mexico," Cram continued. "I grew up in Los Alamos. In 2022, there were like 21 fires in New Mexico burning simultaneously. A lot of configurations that could be this year, right? That's probably why you're here today. So we've seen this trend across the West. It's increasing acres burned and number of fires increased.

"Let's get on to some things you can take home.There's three take home messages, leave early, follow the evacuation checklist and no garden hoses. Now, if a garden hose was effective our fire folks here would be like: Everybody go home and grab your garden hoses, right? Don't try to to stay to protect your home!"

Firefighters get special training A fire moves in two ways. Yes, it marches across the landscape, but it also has these embers. Suddenly you're surrounded by fire. How did that happen?

And sometimes everybody's trying to evacuate at the same time.

He showed photos of melted vehicles, "If with all this, I can't convince you to leave early. When in doubt, Leave early."

[To this editor's brain, as soon as he said: When in doubt, my mind finished it with Get Out. Perhaps that will help you remember it.]

Cram presented a lot of stories and photos showing what happens if one doesn't leave early before the fire gets to the home.

"We know that people evacuate; that's the number one thing on our list. How many people do you know with special needs, or walker or wheelchair. How much time do you have? Very little time. So just think about those things. Get those people. If you have neighbors that are homebound, senior citizens, whatever they may be, and you know, they can't drive or get out. In the worst case scenario, you may not have time, but if you do, stop and check with your neighbor."

The phones most people carry today are critical communication devices, he said."But if the lines get jammed up, in this part of the world, sometimes you can text when you can't call.This should be an addition to your contacts, All the newer ones have GPS. You can use that for navigation. Your phone is super useful communication device when you're leaving."

He reminded those who take prescriptions, specially those one needs but can't necessarily get at Walmart: "Grab those on your way out."

The other seven in the top 10 Ps are Pets, Photos, Pocketbook personal computer, personal items (such as phone charger, water bottles clothes), papers (which can often be replaced) and anything considered priceless!. Pets and photos are the two things that fire victims say they missed the most. They wish they had those back, Don't forget our purse or your wallet.Grab your personal computer on the way out. Often you have irreplaceable documents on there. Grab those personal items. such as chargers, clothes, water bottles."

He recommended because most of those at the meeting live in pretty rural environments, if you can think of it, bring and leave in long pants, long sleeve shirts. Throw a wool blanket in the car. It can help defer heat if you are driving through the fire.

And the priceless things on the list - those are your grandmother's pearl earrings that her mother gave her. Things like that. Maybe the box of recipes that your mother wrote out.

He noted that most of the things in one's house, you will quickly forget, so put those you don't want to lose in a special place where you can grab it on the way out. Write them on a list, so you don't forget them.

Think about everything you don't want to lose and put it on a list that you can find, such as attached to your refrigerator or someplace you can find it quickly.

Sign up for emergency notifications. Grant County has adopted the IPAWS (integrated public alert and warning system) system that allows you to get these messages from county officials about some sort of emergency,

He noted that even if you have a cell phone without a local area code, IPAWS notifies all cell phone in the area target by the emergency notice.

He noted that homes damaged or lost to wildfires are generally speaking, covered by most insurance policies. Your vehicles are covered by your auto insurance, But if you have a lot of outbuilding and valuables, you might need more coverage. Make sure you get that coverage.

Flood insurance is separate, and when a fire burns the ground, and it rains on the burn scar, floods can result.

He noted it is also important to inventory your home contents. Do a video of each room and keep it on your smartphone, separate videos for each room, with open drawers, open cabinets, open doors. You can also narrate as you go along.

Email them to yourself, so they end up in the cloud, just in case you forget your phone. Those videos and your lists of belonging will facilitate insurance payments. Your list should include when the item was purchased, how much you paid for it and a description of it.

For your prescriptions, take a photo of the bottle with the information visible.

For your pets, have an evacuation plan. Have the carriers ready for your cat or dog and don't forget their prescriptions, if they have them and some food for several days. If you plan to stay in a hotel and they don't take pets, make sure you have their vaccination records, because the pets will go to the shelter, and they won't be accepted without vaccination records. 

If you have more than a couple of pets, be more prepared, and if you have livestock, make sure you have an evacuation plan for them, too.

Take photos of your pets, too, in case they get lose or you get separated.

If you have a lot of photos, for instance, old slides, put them in a box for easy movement, The same with printed photos. It it's overwhelming.because you have so many photos, "one thing I suggest is maybe start with your top 100 photos and digitize them. If there's no time, take pictures of them. They won't be great, but you will have the memories. Email photos to yourself or put them in Dropbox or somewhere in the cloud. You can also copy them to external hard drive, also Today you put your photos in the cloud, and there you have your backup removed here. If you go think of this ahead of time, what are those priceless things to you? It's going to be a little different for everybody. And you write that down again on your list. You won't forget it.

Important papers? Most all government issued documents can be replaced. All of you have different scenarios. Maybe there are some documents you don't want to lose, so you should back them up, but in the cloud,

You have a filing cabinet with lots of papers in it. If you digitize them, you'd be better. You may want to buy a fireproof safe, but usually, they are only fire resistance, so you still lose things inside. A better choice might be a safety deposit box in a bank.

I would say that a will and trust is the one thing you'd want to like, maybe grab with you, right, and have that back there as well. But why is because what is personal? It's a time to do that. You can't write the government for adoption papers, birth certificates, divorce papers, a trust, information relevant to you.

If like a lot of us, there's one way in and there's one way out,
but maybe you can cut a fence to go a different direction. You may have to walk.

A car obviously needs a road or an easy way to get out.Have multiple escape routes, if possible,

IPAWS will usually able to give you early information.

But if you've done your planning, you can grab what is important and head out.

"You can think: 'I don't need to worry about my home because it has been insured. My photos and my papers are backed up. My property is firewise. We'll talk about that next. When the first starts is not the time to try to fire wise your property.It's going to be basically useless. You need to back away now.

So load up people, prescriptions in your grab bag. If the time allows you grab your pets, following your pet evacuation plan, your pocketbook and your PC, and you've identified what's previously priceless to you. You'd go in an orderly fashion, following your escape routes, right?

That is your take home message today.bThat's how you can fare as well as possible through a wildfire.

Part of living in this environment is, in the worst case scenario, incomplete information. Or then you find out they closed the road because of a dust storm.

But if you are prepared, then you know evacuation routes, and you head the other direction.

Often wildfires happen on the Red Flag days, so you have a day or two warning that the red flag day is coming. Be prepared.

If you know a fire has started and you see smoke, go in the opposite direction, if possible. You may have to go through some fences, but go.

A participant said he didn't have a question, but "I have a suggestion, something I've been thinking about myself, is to do a drill and to set a timer and see how long it takes to get everything together and out to the vehicle."

Cram said: "That's a great suggestion. I'll think about adding that in my presentation. But it's like, sometimes, to your point, having gone through it practicing, it may be, you thought it was adequate, and it pretty much is. But here's how we can improve it. It's about being proactive. It's your best chance go through this evacuation process and see how long it takes. And again. On to your point, figure out you know as many different ways you can go as possible.

"Another thing I thought of is too here you want to turn off your your main electrical and your propane and perhaps water. but maybe not your water because the firefighters can use that water. So don't turn off the water. It's pretty easy to hit that breaker and in gas as well. If you can get out in time, that's fine. Sometimes the power company shuts it in pretty quick, and the gas company turns it off as well.

Then he talked about what they call defensible space. Really, it should be called survivable space. And that's kind of our next segment, right?

Firefighters will come in and look that house and may decide it would be unsafe for them.

But a home that does not have vegetation right up to the house. They decided they can defend that one.

It's not anybody's job to die to protect your home. If you live in this environment, you have to accept your wildland fires. If you don't like fires go to Florida. Fire is part of the environment. If you don't like fire, then you can be prepared for it. I would argue you should accept reality, and determine how can make it so firefighters can save your house.

[Editor's Note: Much of this information can be found at https://wfca.com/wildfire-articles/firewise-defensible-space/ ]

The rest of the session focused on fire safety and home ignition prevention. Key points included the importance of managing vegetation to prevent direct flame and radiant heat damage, and the significant role of embers in igniting homes. Cram emphasized creating a fire-resistant zone around homes, including removing combustible materials within five feet, using non-combustible materials for siding and decks, and maintaining proper ventilation. The concept of "lean, clean, and green" landscaping was highlighted, along with the use of fire-resistant materials and practices like grazing to reduce fuel loads. He also mentioned available resources and funding for fire prevention efforts.

The suggestions included:
• Review the 5-foot non-combustible zone around the home and remove any combustible materials.
• Thin and space vegetation 5-30 feet from the home, removing dead/dying plants.
• Assess the home's roof, vents, decking, and siding for fire-resistant materials and make necessary upgrades.
• For larger properties investigate options for livestock grazing to reduce fuel loads on the property.

[Editor's Note: Which is why thinning and other fuel reduction loads are part of the Forest Service tool box for lessening the danger of forest fires.]

Cram suggested homeowners ontact local fire departments, state forestry, or the New Mexico Fire Network for guidance and potential funding sources for wildfire preparedness.

He went into how homes burn "There are three ways homes burn—direct flames, radiant heat, and embers.
He noted that the home ignition triangle is introduced, emphasizing the importance of vegetation management, with an example given of a deck fire caused by embers, highlighting the challenge of embers.

He describes the radiant heat from fires and the role of firefighters in reducing it.

Challenges of Embers

He discussed the difficulty of dealing with embers, comparing them to snowflakes and then showed several videos of how they get into houses and how they can ignite vegetation even at a distance from an active fire. Embers, as well, can enter homes and out-buildings through the tiniest of openings.

Home Ignition Zone and Maintenance

He introduced the concept of the home ignition zone, emphasizing the need to clear the first five feet surrounding the building, by removing all combustible materials. It is best to have hard surfaces, such as concrete or tile completely around the home in the first five feet. All dead vegetations should be removed, which usually requires at least annual maintenance.

Impact of Vegetation and Fire Behavior

Cram also talked about maintaining vegetation around a home and property. It included the five foot area around the home being hardened and void of dead and dying vegetation.


For Landscape Management and Fire Prevention, Cram talked the importance of creating and maintaining a landscape that does not transmit fire and heat to the house. He mentioned the concept of lean, clean and free to again emphasize the removal of dead and dying vegetation. Thin and space vegetation 5-30 feet from the home.

Other aspects include limbing up any trees and spacing them so that fire cannot travel from one to the next.

For the house structure itself, Cram said the home should be "hardened," especially the roof vents, decks, windows, siding and eaves. Any openings should have a fire rejecting screen over and around them to prevent the entry of embers.

Class A roofing material, with metal flashing and metal gutters are the best choices.

Cram emphasized that vegetation should not grow against or near windows. Decks should be constructed of non-combustible and non-flammable materials. The same is true fro siding and fences.

He also went into the need to have propane tanks installed well away from homes. Any equipment near the home should be maintained to be fire-resistant.

Grazing and Fire Prevention

Grazing by domestic or wild animals reduces fuel loads around homes.

In his final comments, Cram emphasized the important of leaving early and following a checklist on what to take when one evacuates, as well as having a checklist for continual maintenance of a home and property to make it fire-resistant if not fire-proof.

He concluded by reiterating and emphasizing preparedness all year round, through proactive measures such asretrofitting anything to make it more fire-resistant and to maintain fire-resistant materials and maintaining vegetation around the home.

Cram also encouraged property owners to contact their local fire department, state forestry, or the New Mexico Fire Network for guidance and potential funding sources for wildfire preparedness.