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Jemez Mountains Fire History

Make your own version of this map using our Dynamic Fire History Map tool for the Jemez Mountains.

Information from a five-meter long bog core in the Jemez Mountains demonstrated that charcoal appears regularly throughout 9,000 years of sediment accumulation. However, this ends at the end of the nineteenth century. This is evidence that there were fires in the forest above the bog about once or twice a decade. Fire-scar analysis on these trees backs this up. Recurring at intervals, surface fires burned in the ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests until the 1880s. The fires ended as a result of livestock grazing and government fire suppression. Without a doubt, these factors caused great fire risks.

The Cerro Grande Fire

As a fire, the result of a prescribed burn, raged on the neighboring Jemez Mountains, the people of Los Alamos prepared for the worst. The worst came: the fire devoured 354 homes and displaced approximately 429 families. By May 10, 18,000 residents from White Rock and Los Alamos were evacuated and by May 17, the fire was approaching over 45,000 acres. In total, damages to Los Alamos was estimated at more than $1 billion, 28 percent of Laboratory land was burned and the estimated cost of fighting the fire was $5.1 million.

Staff at Bandelier National Monument had approved and prepared a Prescribed Fire Plan for the Upper Frijoles 1 and 5 Burn Units. The plan was to reduce hazard fuels in the burn units. On May 4 2000, a prescribed fire was conducted on Cerro Grande Peak in Bandelier National Monument by National Park Service personnel. However, winds were relatively strong and the fire behavior became erratic that night. By noon the next day, the National Park Service declared the fire as an escaped fire and requested more resources.

On May 11 2000, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt formed an interagency investigation team that completed its assignment and prepared a final report by May 18. This report is titled "The Cerro Grande Prescribed Fire Investigation Report".

The Cerro Grande fire was unique in a variety of ways. Not only did the fire pass over approximately one third of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, precipitating fears and public concern with nuclear waste and other chemicals, but also caused significant amounts of private property damage in the town site. Furthermore, because the fire began from an 'ill fated' prescribed burn, much of the public concern has appeared to center around the 'benefit' of such practices. Newspapers like the Santa Fe New Mexican and The Albuquerque Journal wrote extensively on human interest stories; people returning home to their devastated houses, public concern over insurance claims, people living in shelters, etc. Such articles put a human dimension to the fire, relating individual narratives that spoke of loss, tragedy, and anger.

Damage caused by the Cerro Grande fire was extensive. The Thursday following the fire, New Mexico designated the fire as a catastrophic event, which means that all insurance claims must be settled within 90 days. Failure to do so can result in penalties to the companies. David Roembach of Farmers Insurance Group stated that most homeowners whose dwellings were destroyed or damaged in the fire would have enough insurance to replace the house. However, the median sales price of a house in Los Alamos was $195,000 in 1999, and many of the houses damaged or destroyed in the Cerro Grande fire are a bit more expensive (Insurance agents brace for claims, The Santa Fe New Mexican, May 12 2000).

One year after Cerro Grande fire.
Photo by Derek Honeyman

One year after Cerro Grande fire.
Photo by Derek Honeyman

One year after Cerro Grande fire.
Photo by Derek Honeyman

A wattle (?) constructed to prevent post-fire erosion
Photo by Derek Honeyman

In summary, the Cerro Grande fire presents some thought provoking items. For one, it demonstrates the difficulties inherent in such large payments from both FEMA and local insurance companies. Furthermore, as the Cerro Grande lies in one of the areas of study, it is an excellent example of how the public perceives prescribed burnings.

The Dome Fire

On April 26, 1996, the Dome Fire began, burning across more than 16,000 acres of juniper, piñon, ponderosa pine, and mixed conifers in the Jemez Mountains. It had been ignited from an improperly extinguished campfire. According to Cannon (1997), the fire spread rapidly due to higher than normal fuel loads, low fuel moisture, and weather and wind patterns. Furthermore, it burned approximately 6684 ha of federal lands (4750 of which were administered by the USDA FS and 1934 within Bandelier National Monument). Boundary Peak and Capulin Canyon were particularly affected.

The Dome Fire was important in the sense that it served as a wake-up call in public and official perception on the threat of wildfire. Particularly, this was true in understanding the role of ecosystem management and the reduction of wildfire threat. As a result, a number of groups got together to prevent future fires. These were the National Park Service, the Laboratory, DOE, US Forest Service, the County of Los Alamos, the State of New Mexico, and San Ildefonso Pueblo (ibid). This team sponsored the construction of a helicopter pad and a support building at the Laboratory. The staff of Bandelier National Monument oversaw the new capabilities.

La Mesa Fire

In 1977, the La Mesa burned across 15, 444 acres of ponderosa pine forests. As a result of this fire, scientists began to study the effects of fire on ecosystem patterns. The first study results were presented in the 1981 La Mesa Fire Symposium. The second symposium was held in 1994. Available from the USDA Forest Service is the "Fire Effects in Southwestern Forests: Proceedings of the Second Symposium on the La Mesa Fire" (General Technical Report RM-GTR-286).

Though the fire was seven miles from Los Alamos, it was so intense that embers reached Alamo Canyon within hours (Cerro Grande: Canyons of Fire, Spirit of Community). However, the morning after the fire began, firefighters were able to contain most of it. The fire did circumvent the fire lines, spreading into Bandelier National Monument and over to State Road 4. It came within 2 miles of the town. The next morning, it reached the Laboratory's explosives fabrication and testing areas at K- and S- Sites (ibid).

About 800 firefighter crews from New Mexico, California, and Arizona extinguished this fire within days. No lives were lost. However, the National Park Service rescued 27 high school students and their leader from the back hills of Bandelier when it was discovered they were trapped there.

The Lummis Fire

Within Bandelier, a lightning strike ignited a blaze in Lummis Canyon in 1997. Forest officials allowed the flame to continue as a prescribed natural burn and burned 1,500 acres.

The Oso Fire

The Oso Complex Fire went through the Pajarito Plateau in 1998, coming within 8 miles of Los Alamos. It started when two smaller blazes combined. When it was finally contained, it burned 5,185 acres.

Water Canyon Fire

Water Canyon originates in the Santa Fe National Forest on the eastern part of the Jemez Mountains. Its watershed stretches across the southern part of Laboratory land to the Rio Grande. Ironically, this 1954 blaze began when residents were burning wood scraps in order minimize a fire. It consumed close 3,000 acres. Smoke filled the town as it raged less than a mile away. The town was evacuated. More than 1,000 firefighters brought the fire under control in two days (Cerro Grande: Canyons of Fire, Spirit of Community).

After the Cerro Grande fire, there was concern over potential contamination not only in Water Canyon, but elsewhere. According to a Laboratory Environmental Restoration Project Document (Post-Cerro Grande Fire Accelerated Actions, Water Canyon), current knowledge of contaminants in Water Canyon is limited. However, very few PRSs (potential release sites) drain directly into Water Canyon (see below for more information on contaminants after the Cerro Grande fire).