Three wildfire incidents to be managed under confine and contain strategy

RESERVE, NM, July 17, 2023 – Recent thunderstorms delivered numerous lightning strikes to the Gila National Forest last week, starting more than a dozen wildfires across the area. The Reserve Ranger District had many of the fires, with eight ignitions occurring in six locations. Several fires, the Snow, Saliz, and Raven fires, are out. Four other fires are currently burning at three remote locations with limited values at risk.

The Dark Fire started on Corner Mountain about 18 miles southeast of Reserve, New Mexico. Dark Fire started as two lightning strike fires several hundred feet apart that merged. A small burnout operation was conducted to remove fuels between the Dark Fire's edge and Forest Road 153, assisting with containment. Dark Fire has grown to 115 acres. The Hay Fire and Divide Fire are about 1.5 miles apart near Elk Mountain. Hay Fire is 56 acres and Divide Fire is 176 acres. Lastly, Davis Fire started north of Collins Park east of Davis Spring and is about 10 acres in size. It is located within the Collins Park Burn Block prescribed fire that could potentially be implemented this fall.

A Type 3 incident management team will assume command of the incidents at 6:00 p.m. today. Crews in three divisions will continue to monitor the incidents, which have been minimal so far, as they prepare roads and trails around the wildfires to be used as containment features. Firefighters are also scouting range infrastructure, such as fences and plastic stock tanks and water pipelines – that which is found to be functional will be protected from fire.

"Recent rains are increasing relative humidity, greening up surface vegetation, and resulting in low intensity fire behavior," said Reserve District Ranger Amanda Gehrt. "Each of these incidents is consuming dead and down wood and lifting the forest canopy by scorching lower branches."

The weather forecast is calling for potential rain each day for the next week beginning this evening. For more information contact Maribeth Pecotte at 575-388-8211 or Maribeth.Pecotte@usda.gov .