ALBUQUERQUE — Firefighters working Friday on the east side of the Manzano Mountains near Albuquerque appeared to be getting the upper hand — again — in the tenacious Trigo Fire, but the ferocity of the blaze suggests that 2008 could be a long, difficult wildfire season in New Mexico.

 

 

The Trigo Fire started more than two weeks in the mountains east of Belen, some 30 miles southeast of Albuquerque.

 

Fire officials suspect it was human-caused. It burned over the crest of the Manzanos, then down the east side of the mountains, incinerating several homes and outbuildings before firefighters appeared to have brought it under control earlier this week. But on Wednesday, winds to 50 mph blew hot embers into fresh fuel and the fire roared back to life.

By Friday, residents of several villages and subdivisions in the area had been asked to evacuate and fire managers ordered in additional help. More than 230 people, at least four aircraft and several pieces of firefighting equipment were at the scene.

While the fire was only 30 percent contained, the winds that had helped boost its size to 13,000 acres appeared to be helping for a change, said Linda Kearns, a U.S. Forest Service public information officer.

"It looks like it’s burning back on itself" thanks to a change in the wind direction, she told the New Mexico Independent on Friday afternoon.

The weather forecast for the weekend also looked like it might give firefighters some relief, she said. But they could be in for a long fire season, Kearns said.

While much of northern and central New Mexico had a relatively wet and snowy winter, the Manzano Mountains largely missed out on the precipitation. This spring, the forest of mixed conifers and shrubs is tinder dry and ready to burn, she said.

"This year is just primed" for fires, Kearns said.

Climate scientists have said for several years that the size and intensity of wildfires in the western United States and Canada have increased in recent decades, which they attribute to climate change — warmer air temperatures are causing mountain snowpacks to melt earlier, thereby creating longer, dryer fire seasons.

New Mexico is no stranger to wildfires, but the 2008 fire season is starting early and hot, Kearns said.

Even as the Trigo Fire refused to die near Albuquerque, the South Tularosa Fire was threatening 90 structures on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in southern New Mexico.

"This is very early," Kearns said. "It could be a really long summer."