Gila Las Cruces Type 3 Incident Management Team
Ricky Cox—Incident Commander
Buzzard Fire

Control Line Construction Nearing Completion on Southwest Side of Buzzard Fire
June 12, 2018 Daily Update
Acres: 43,009 Start Date: May 22, 2018
Cause: Human-caused Location: 10 miles NE of Reserve, NM (Gila NF)
Containment: 69% Fuels: Timber (litter, grass and understory)
Total Personnel: 410

General Information: Firefighters are working diligently to complete control lines to tie together all control lines around the fire. Crews continue to monitor fire progression and conduct firing operations to secure control lines. Crews on the eastern portion of the fire are patrolling to look for remaining hot spots and secure control lines. Fire suppression repair and rehabilitation is ongoing.

Fire Operations: In the southwest portion of the fire, hand line construction between Piney Tank and Flattop Mesa, the preparation of Trail #768 as a control line, and dozer line construction along the North Fork of Negrito Creek are nearing completion. Firefighters continue to monitor the fire’s progression and conduct firing operations as needed on the dozer line along FR 4166E and lines along the North Fork of Negrito Creek . The Escondido Wildland Fire Module is collecting fire weather and fire effects data to provide fire crews with information to aid in suppression activities and tactics. Wildland fire engines are working with crews in the eastern side of the fire to help crews patrol and locate pockets of remaining heat. Suppression repair and rehabilitation work of seeding control lines is progressing and is nearly complete.

Fire Safety Awareness: Firefighter and public safety is a number one concern for the Gila Las Cruces Type 3 Team. Fire personnel and fire equipment are traveling between the Incident Command Post (fire camp) at Apache Creek Campground and the fire area using NM Hwy 12, please use caution when traveling in this area.

Fire Weather: Hot and dry conditions with light southwest winds continues through Tuesday. Relative humidity will again be in the single digits. Wednesday, moisture is expected to move in with a wind shift from the south to southeast which could trigger some showers and thundershowers. Some of these storms could bring dry lightning.

Closures: The area around the fire will remain closed for public safety until lifted by the Gila National Forest. Roadblocks have been set up by local law enforcement. In support of this closure, the Continental Divide Trail has been rerouted around the fire closures. The trail reroute map is available at https://bit.ly/2GRESFw . More closure information is available at https://bit.ly/2LvwKhN . For more information on Stage 2 fire restrictions, please visit https://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/gila/alerts-notices/?aid=46143 .

Smoke Situation: As the fire slowly backs through old burn scars toward containment lines, only moderate amounts of smoke are expected, causing minor impacts to the majority of populated areas. Ranches to the south and the down-drainage area near Reserve will continue to experience the late night and early morning impacts they have been receiving over the last 10 days. Smoke-sensitive individuals and people with respiratory or heart disease are encouraged to take precautionary measures. For more information on air quality and health impacts due to wildfire smoke, please visit the New Mexico Department of Health website at https://nmtracking.org/fire . Smoke concentration data is available at: https://tools.airfire.org/monitoring/v4 .

Fire Information Links: Fire information can be found at nmfireinfo.com  and http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5814/ . For information on the Gila National Forest, please visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/gila .

Fire Information: (602) 529-5924 Office Hours: 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
InciWeb: http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5814/