Elk Fire Update, April 3, 2021

Reserve Ranger District

Location: East Elk Mountain, 30 miles east of Reserve, Catron County, NM on the Gila National Forest.

Start Date: March 31, 2021               Size: ~200 acres                 Cause: Under investigation

Vegetation: Piñon/juniper and grass

Resources: One (1) Type 1 Initial Attack (IA) crew, two (2) Type 1 IA Crews, one (1) handcrew, two (2) Type 6 engines, one (1) Type 3 helicopter, two (2) Type 2 dozers and one (1) road grader.

Summary:

The Elk Fire is primarily active along the ridgelines on the west and southwest perimeter of the fire. Fire behavior has been low-to-moderate during Friday's cloud cover. Heavy equipment, two dozers and a grader, began improving access with one dozer on the Horse Camp Canyon road (FR533) from the junction of FR 30 to the south towards Forest Road 141 with a Type 6 engine, the second dozer is improving access on FR 141 from the junction of County Road CO21/State Route 59 west up FR 141 (Houghton Canyon) towards the Horse Camp Canyon Road. The road grader is improving FR 30 from Drop Point 30 east to Turkey Track. The strategy of the fire is full suppression, with confine and containment using natural geographic features and forest roads.

Smoke from fire rises up and away during the daytime, but in the evenings, smoke can pool back down in canyons, drainages, and basins. For information on air quality and protecting your health, and to find guidance on distances and visibility, please visit https://nmtracking.org/fire. Fire information can be found at https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/7359/.

For information on the Gila National Forest, check out our website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/gila