By Mary Alice Murphy
[Editor's Note: This is part 1 of the public meeting. It includes all the presenters. Part 2 will include the questions and answers. This writer is going as fast as she can to get this article out in a timely manner, For the latest updates on the Trout Fire, please visit www.grantcountybeat.com, where the daily updates are posted as soon as possible each day. And please excuse typos and errors.]
The Friday night, June 20, 2025, the Trout Fire public meeting brought 280 people, according to the official count, to fill up the large event room at the Grant County Veterans Memorial Business and Conference Center.
Starr Farrell, who facilitated the first public meeting, did so again. She introduced the first speaker, RobRoy Williams, the Operations Section chief. with Southwest Area Team 4."So I'll go ahead and just give a current update of where we're at the fire and some of the actions that we've been doing since our last meeting that we had in here on Monday. I'd like to start off saying that this is 100% full suppression fire. We're getting a combination of direct, indirect and point protection across the fire. We've been working 24 hours around the clock. We have both day and night shifts, just kind of she mentioned how many folks. I have a few numbers here. Currently we have 14 hotshot crews, 15 type two crews, 51 engines, 11 dozers assigned to it, 10 helicopters, seven of those being the big type one helicopters that can deliver water and retard it out to the fire. We also have three unmanned aerial system drones that can do nine hour IR (instrument rating) flight scores, both day and night, as well as any aerial ignition if we didn't get to it with the fixed wing aircraft we have had over the last five days. We've done about 50 drops a day on the fire for a total of about 250 total drops on there. With the helicopters, we've flown a total of about 170 hours. There's a lot of effort going on out there that the Forest Service has authorized us to do in order to limit the fire spread and protect all the communities and the values of risk around the area.
"So a little bit of operational update I'll start up here on the northwest corner of the flyer. That's where, just the last few days, we were able to complete some of the burning around the structures there from our last meeting, we were able to tie that into the 15 road. We've been doing that at night, so we have the conditions that provide us a little bit lower intensity fire. So, we could make sure we hold that fire south of the 35 road there.
"Everything in there has been holding really good. There is still a little bit of heat, so we've got crews in there, working day and night to help secure line removing the risk around the structures. So then that way we can kind of be able to get ready to reopen that area, so as soon as the risk is removed from there, and that's basically kind of going all the way from the northwest corner of fire, all the way down the edge to just below camp Thunderbird and Soldiers(?) Creek area about the Allie Creek area, where the road turns off there. We were able to show a little bit of containment coming down the road there. We anticipate that we're going to be able to show a lot more containment down 35 in the next 24 to 48 hours. I can't stress enough that we've got crews working in there diligently to remove the risk and to be able to allow folks to get back into their residence as soon as possible.
"I'll just talk a little bit about a couple days ago. I believe it was on Tuesday. It was pretty tough day. I'm sure you guys all saw we had a fire that made a pretty big push. We talked about how dry the fuel conditions were out there, the strong winds, the low relative humidities, and the fire made a big push. We were kind of expecting it. We got a fire behavior analysts out there. They run models for us to kind of give us an idea what the fire may do. And sure enough, it sure did it.
"I want to talk about that we were ready for that. We had gone down there and done a pre-planned response. We had set up sprinkler systems; we put in a dozer line, where we could around places. And when that fire came down late in the afternoon, when conditions really weren't the best time for it to happen. And man, our guys did some amazing work in there that afternoon. We figured out that there was probably about 50 residents or buildings or that were affected during that day. And man, they did some amazing work, and they were able to hold the line and be able to limit impacts in there.
"We did take a spot fire over in that area that was about 75 acres, which was pretty concerning with us. Our crews aggressively went after it, and they were able to get around that fire and keep it there. They've been monitoring it. The heat's been removed out of there, and we're feeling really good about that, coming down, over into the southeast corner of the fire as the fire made that big push that day, the next day, you know, we were working with the helicopters that kind of got into some of that country. That's a little bit more heat out with the grass, kind of gets into a fuel type change, into some PJ (piñon-juniper) it's kind of hung out there. We're evaluating that area and looking at areas where we can go direct on there and be able to limit any more impacts to the highway 35 corridor there.
"So we've been doing that the last couple days, and we're going to continue to do that, so we don't impact any more of the communities down through there, especially as well down a little bit more on the south into the southeast corner. They're going up in and off the Georgetown Road and looking at those areas where we can go direct so we can eliminate the impact of the line, and that kind of stuff coming around as well as kind of all that is going on. You know, we have to anticipate worst case scenarios. There's still a lot of heat up there. There's still some risk. So we are kind of still doing what we call a kind of a contingency line. And so we're putting in some dozer line, some hand line in areas where we can't do that using road systems through the area and putting in a contingency line that kind of goes around the north end of the line and then ties back up into the 15 road there.
"So just in case, worst case scenario, if something, an outflow of a storm were to come and push that fire south, that they were able to limit the impacts to Silver City, Pinos Altos and the rest of the communities that are down, there and down along highway 152.
"We have moved up a little bit more into the western edge of the fire. And I'm sure that's what you guys have been seeing this afternoon. I'm sure there's a lot of concern with that. There's still some heat up in there, just up above, and kind of at the head of the Bear Canyon area. There's a bowl up in there, and that's where the fire is currently burning at. We've been working it all day with air tankers and helicopters and we are really trying to keep it up on top of the ridge near the CDT trail. And we're so far, things are working for us. We're going to continue to monitor that. We're also coming up with some plans so we can minimize any impacts to the watershed there. But it's still pretty dry.
"We still have a couple couple more days of some pretty tough fire days before maybe some weather comes in. It has kind of come into the 15 road down and, to that northwest corner. A lot of that's looking good. We were able to add a little bit of containment down towards the point of the origin of the fire. Again, we anticipate in a few days we'll be able to adjust that. But things have been looking real good in there. We've still got crews in there working and making sure that whole thing works.
"I know it's been a big inconvenience. There's a lot of you folks that have been displaced from your homes, kind of concerned when you can go back in, I'm sure you'll want to check on your stuff. And I can't stress enough how hard we're working day and night to be able to provide that, to get you back in there. So you guys can go back into your place. We got people, a lot of folks, working up and down the 15 road. Still, we've got equipment that's doing some prep, kind of removing some of the vegetation on that road. Again, like I was saying, there's that contingency line. Every time people drive up there, you know, we have to stop working, and that just delays how long it takes us to get that work done.,
"I would like to mention a little bit about some of the pre-planned stuff that the forest has done over the years.There were fuels treatments that's kind of gone in through the center of the fire. I know it's probably hard to see where I'm pointing at the map, but you can see there's these little areas up in here where the fire didn't burn. If you were to overlay that on their fuels treatment areas, that's where you can see a lot of the fuels treatment they've done over the years. If you kind of look along the east end of the fire, along the highway 35 corridor there, where you kind of see where the fire might reach the road, that's exactly where they did those fuel treatments. Those fuels treatments help us be successful coming through here to moderate the fire, and allow the firefighters to get a toehold on a lot of that.
"We're always concerned about the new starts. We do have an initial attack group that we have within our team, that are their area of responsibilities when we go under our temporary flight restrictions. And then we're also here to support the forest, but if they get a start outside of that area, you know, we'll be able to kick them resources in order to be able to handle the next new start that might be out there. I want to throw out a thanks to the county fire departments and fire chief the county sheriff as well as, the power company, too many more state police, with the coordination and cooperation that we do daily out there, whether it be through evacuation statuses, coordinating, getting extra help through the fire departments, whether we need water support. They've been hauling a bunch of water out in certain areas for it. It's just been amazing, and that helps us be successful, and we truly appreciate that. I will be around after this meeting to be able to answer any questions folks may have.
Next was Tom Bird, incident meteorologist, with the weather. "I'm a local forecaster down at the National Weather Service office in Santa, Teresa, New Mexico. Been working this area for 30 something years, so this is home for me too, and it really does break my heart to see things burn in these places.
"We'll go on with, withwhat we're going to talk about with weather now. So let's shift gears and talk weather. And to tell you that we're putting maximum effort into this.
"We have flown in from Boise, Idaho, three temporary weather stations that we placed around the fire over on 15 and 35 down by the Big Tree. And we did that for three reasons. One is we want to make better forecasts for all the forest, all the firefighters, so that they get better tactical tactics and strategies that all work out well for them.
"Second thing is safety, safety for the firefighters out there working right alongside all that heat, so we know if there's wind shifts and outflow boundaries and increases in winds.
"The third thing is going to help all of us is once we start getting rain, they all have rain buckets on them, so we'll start knowing how much we're going to get across the area. So that's very important for us.
"Next slide, please. This is where we find ourselves today, and this is how we got into a situation where the fuels are so dry that they're super combustible. Since last September, we've been intensifying throughout across southwestern New Mexico. This is our current state of the drought right here in the southwest corner, you can see it's the darkest red and that is exceptional drought. It doesn't get any worse than that. And if you look across the country up there in the right there is no other place in the entire country that is drier than we are right here.
"Last thing, we have eight permanent weather stations across the Gila forest, and when we calculate from December to June, we've only gotten 17% of normal. Thinking about that in the opposite, we're short 83% of the rainfall we should have had during that period. That's where we are. That's why the fuels are so dry. That's why the fire behavior is so active.
"Next slide, please. This is the fire weather matrix that we make for the team and show to them every single day, temperature, cloud, relative humidity and probability of storm precipitation. Usually that's all one. And if you were here last time I did this, you saw that it's just one single chart, but I broke it in half on purpose, because we have a distinct difference between what we're going to see through the weekend and what we're going to see next week. Tomorrow, we've had increased fire behavior today, so we get a little drier and a little windier. Well, tomorrow we do that again and get even windier tomorrow. So tomorrow is kind of a heads up day for the team, for the firefighters, for all of us, because we're going to see more wind on that fire. So we're looking at southwest winds, probably 20 to 30 in the afternoon. That's not great. And we're pretty dry in the afternoon, too. So the combination of those gets us really close to at least critical and not quite extreme, but critical burning conditions. Weather wise, tomorrow, we continue that on Sunday with some improvements. The winds come down, the relative humidity comes up. So another watch out day for us, but probably working or trending in our favor, okay, and that's because these winds are southwesterly. Right now, there's no moisture to our Southwest. It's dry air, so that keeps us dry. But what happens on Monday? What changes is our winds become more southern. There's a lot of moisture starting to pull up in Mexico to our south, and when we start going southerly, we'll start drawing some of that moisture up. And then we get into Tuesday, Wednesday, we get some easteries that grows into even more moisture. So you see, we went from all these yellow and red boxes this weekend to nothing, but what someone called a wall of green. And that's good news for us, because temperatures are way down; Relative humidities are way up. Winds are much lighter. And finally, we're seeing really good chances for showers and for thunderstorms, and then for what we consider measurable precipitation that makes a difference, which is over a 10th of an inch. And we're going to see that over and over and over again for a while. So that's where our weather looks like next Thursday. Let's go forward. I'm going to say it. Last time I had the audience say it, but I'm going to say the word this time—monsoon. As a meteorologist, what do we look for for that pattern to set up? That's really important. This time of year, we're waiting for that every single year. We need to get established a channel of moisture over the southwest. The way we do that, we look for high pressure over the Gulf, low pressure to our west, and the circulation around those features really compresses all that moisture over Mexico. Then we get the south wind that brings that moisture up. This is an actual forecast chart for next week. So this is what next week looks like to me. When we looked at the potential for precipitation, these outlooks for next week, the next week and the next week the way it lines up is that we're seeing all this green over the southwest, which equates to either likely above normal or leading to above normal for precipitation. So good news, right? We have been dry since December and before, exceptionally dry, so maybe now we can break that dry spell and go back towards a better scenario, which is typical about this time of year. This is what everything is supposed to look like, forecast wise, for precipitation across the region. We get to the weekend without rain. But then southerlies, which start to pull the moisture up. And this is forecast rainfall amounts across the area. You can see, once we get to Monday through Thursday, it looks like every day we have good potential for rainfall over the Gila or the fire to where, if you added up those four days, we're going to fall probably between three quarters and two inches of rain across the region. Now that's good, and that's mostly beneficial, and that's what we're all hoping for. But it does come with some challenges for us and for you guys. First of all for us, outflow winds, and RobRoy mentioned it, we get thunderstorms, and they put out strong winds. It could push the fire across the line, and it has implications on firefighter safety rights. We have to watch for that. That's something we don't want a lot of.
"The second thing is flash flood and debris flow. If you live in a drainage that's been burnt up above, it's likely you may be impacted by that. Monday and Tuesday, there is a projection of the potential for excessive rainfall. We have to give what we consider flash flood guidance for the area. And here on Monday, it's about 5% we call that marginal, and increases on Tuesday to 15% chance. Now that's on burned ground. If it falls in town, no problem, unless it's really excessive.
"I've spoken about how much rain we have the potential for and I've introduced the concept of flash flooding to overflows. Why is it going to be worse if it rains on the fire? Because when you have vegetation, you have a sponge in the forest that's soaking up all that rainfall. When you burn all that vegetation off, that sponge is gone, and the soils get hard, and they just slip the rain off as if it was concrete. So now it all flows into the valleys, and they drain to 35 and 15 down here. So that's why we're seeing increased potential for depletion flows. So what would you do to stay informed? The warnings come from El Paso at www.weather.gov/epz, and you don't get El Paso stations out here. [Editor's Note: The Beat gets weather warnings for the area, and we post them as soon as we can.]
"I want you to get the information that you need to keep you safe as much as possible. Have your phones enabled to get these wireless emergency alerts."
Mark Struthwolf, air resource advisor, adressed three subjects: "where we were, where we're headed, and what you can do as one now to protect yourself from what might have gotten into your homes. So let's go to the first slide here.
The first slide showed individual days. The deep purple color represented hazardous smoke conditions."It wasn't that bad the whole time. You can see it twice on the hourly chart. At Lake Roberts you can se it went way up and then came back down. We had about six to 10 hours of good air, and then it went really back up high again. Wednesday and Thursday, the smoke really got into the Lake Roberts area and Hanover. On the southern part of the fire, we've been looking pretty good, but when we go into the valley, we can see that San Lorenzo had some bad days. and we're still seeing some smoke there. Last night wasn't too bad, but in Mimbres and Lake Roberts area, we still got back up into unhealthy to hazardous conditions. Now, with the wind that changed back to the southwest, some of that smoke and additional smoke that we had produced today, we're looking for a condition to get a little bit worse in parts of the valley, but not in Silver City. It'll be mainly down the valley.
"This a forecast in the next slide. So I have six locations here. We have three areas that are seeing really good conditions now for the next several days, with Las Cruces. Truth or Conse.quences and Silver City
"But keep in mind that we have this valley here Mimbres, which was hazardous yesterday. These are broken into six hour time series. Today, we were looking at better conditions this morning, and we still get, like, a six to 10 hour period of air quality, but then as the smoke lays down at night, the level goes back up. And so we're looking forward tonight in the Mimbres valley to go back up to unhealthy, maybe even very unhealthy. Over in Lake Roberts, same thing tonight. We kind of see that smoke settle down into the valley, because we're not having as much strong south winds as we did last night. And then also in San Lorenzo yesterday morning, we're hazardous, and it was really bad conditions. But today, we started off much better because of the south winds that blew up the valley, but tonight, because of the additional smoke that's being generated, I believe that we'll have a chance for it to go back up into the unhealthy.
"So next slide please. Sometimes I get this question like, how does the smoke we're breathing out here compare to someone that's smoking a cigarette? How does air pollution camper to cigarettes? When you see an air quality value of 50, that's like having a half a cigarette. Air quality of 100 is the equivalent of about one cigarette. And then when it gets up to 200, it could have the equivalent of having five cigarettes in a period of one day. The difference between smoking a cigarette which has nicotine, which has its own issues, with fire smoke, there are a lot of toxic particles that are being generated in your body. And these are very, very fine particles. The size of particles that we look at in our forecast is 2.5 microns. That is 150th the size of a strand of hair. They are very small, and they can get very deep into your lungs. So it's a prolonged hazard. And cigarette smoke damages long term, but that's going to get to frequent and long term damages.
"Next slide, please.That's not it, but I do have another slide, and actually it was going to be a slide that shows you what you can do now so that when you're getting ready to go back into your homes, as some of them have had a lot of smoke in them, and there's a way to mitigate that. I wanted to show you how to build a box fan filter. And they do a great job.
[Editor's Note: We didn't have time to catch the QR code, but here are websites this writer found that tells you how to create a box fan filter: https://cleanaircrew.org/box-fan-filters/ OR https://edge.deohs.washington.edu/blog/how-make-box-fan-filter-clean-indoor-air-smoke ]
"We have one person over here, Starr, that has used one in the past at a different location, and she said it was great. It's about 90% efficient in getting rid of smoke in your house.
"Maybe when you go back to your house and you're like, well, there's no smoke there. However, as I mentioned that smoke particle is very, very small, gets into a crack. It gets on your furniture. It gets on a carpet. So I would advise anyone going back into your house to build a box fan with a filter on it. A MERV 13 is what they require to get the finest particles. And you'll be surprised at how well that will clean the air out of your house. It's just so worth it. If you're going back to a place where you've been removed from, and there's been smoke in there and you don't smell it, it's probably still there, and you want to get rid of it, this is the best way to do it. And then also, there are handouts that are on the table. Hopefully everyone's read one. There's about this a zillion places you can go. I just listed about 10, how you can go about your health, and where you can get more information about fire, smoke and all that. If you have an questions afterward, I'll be sitting over there," he pointed.
Jim King talked about the fire behavior and the drought. He also showed slides.
" Tom mentioned how long we've been in exceptional drought. RobRoy mentioned it, and it obviously impacts the fuels situation out there. This is one metric we use to measure how dry things are out there. And just a couple days ago, we did set records for how dry we are."
He said the purple line represented this year. The two other lines, the green and the blue, are from previous years, 2013 and 2022. "In 2013, there was a very large fire next door, in the Black Range, the Silver Fire. I see a lot of people shaking their heads. And then 2022 again, in the BlackRrange was the Black Fire. Similar conditions to those two large fires, but this year, biofuels, the Ponderosa pines piñon, juniper, the oaks, those are all critically dried very, very much and are almost dormant. That's where the conditions of fuels are right now, and that has played a role in this Trout Fire.
"Next slide, please. So this right here is what's called a fire progression map. You got a couple of them on the walls as well, and I'll be glad to talk to them in person after if anybody wants to. But this basically takes the perimeter of the fire on the next day and matches it, so we can follow through day by day, when the fire did what it did. When you look back here, the fire started right here," He pointed to the spot on the map. "On that day, the fire behavior when it crossed highway 15 right here. You're probably looking at flame lengths of 80-to-100 feet, and moving at a rate of spread, probably a half a mile an hour, give or take. Where it started, there was no previous fire history, no prescribed burn or anything. It was been a long time to see this disturbance. Couple of highlights for this progression map. We had a big day the second day we were here. And on that day, the flankwas probably three quarters to a mile wide, across north to south. It probably had 40-to-50 foot flame lengths moving at about one to two miles per hour and spotting, so it was throwing embers, small branches, pine cones, that sort of stuff, a half-to-three-quarters of a mile out in front of itself. Another thing to point out here is almost the whole northern flank has had primarily firing actions that firefighters have been taking in the right time of the day that RobRoy mentioned, to lower those intensities, but through the center of the fire that was main fire."
He showed slides of different day action. One was a video taken on the day after the Red Flag Day, where the fire was moving moderately along the ground. He went back the next day to the same spot, and he said although it looked bad because of the ash, the tops of the trees, the canopy, were green and unburned. "This is considered good fire effects. You know that the majority of that was burned by our firefighters at night with the right conditions, was holding onto as much vegetation as we can in those watersheds that Tom mentioned, trying to get it with as low intensity as possible, but still protect the values and highway 35. I'm sure y'all have questions about that. But it basically was up in here, just off of coming off the Signal Peak bridge to the Black Peak. There was a bowl in there that was probably 600 or 700 acres.
Looking at the future, King said: "The next couple of burn days that we're going to have are about as good as it could be. And when I say that the flank of the fire is positioned this way, the prevailing winds are going to be on the southwest, which will meet that perpendicular. And it means the majority of that fire spread along that flank is going to be the lowest kind of fire behavior that we have. It's called backing, planking, so the fire itself is positioned about as good as it can be for our remaining burn periods.
"I'll just throw some numbers out to you. This time of year in the southwest, I'll mention monsoons, when we talk about season ending events, and that's just the chances that we're going to get the right weather that's going to lead to fuels not wanting to burn again until next spring. I won't speculate if that's going to happen with the few days of rain in our forecast, but, at the very least, it'll be a season moderating event if the forecast plays out, but history will tell us this."
"When you look back at the numbers across the forest, those weather stations, 25% of the time by June 17, we have that season ending event take place. 50% of the time those conditions exist by June 26, 75% of the time they exist by July 3, and 90% of the time by the 14th of July, those conditions exist. So what history has told us was a forecast that Tom's bringing up lends itself to those conditions moderating here in the next week or two weeks. The last thing that I would quote. Tom mentioned it. RobRoy mentioned it. It's just monsoons do bring challenges potentially for the fire outflows. It can't be predicted, the direction that would come from or which they build to. It can be very high. It can be very erratic.While we're positioned very good for the prevailing and predictive lens.,if we do get into those monsoonal times without any rain, that's a different situation, potentially, and that's just something we all need to keep in mind until we have enough rain, but we don't have to worry about it. I'll be around to take any questions as long as I need to after meeting."
Next to speak was Andrew Mandell, the incident commander for Southwest Team 4.
"Our intent today was to come out and give you guys the most current progress and information about the fire as we know it, as we have it right now. So hopefully we've provided that. Our intent is also to continue to do that. I just want to take a moment to mention and recognize my team travels all over the country, and this particular community, the cooperators, the partners, the agencies that we work for, it has been greater than tremendous.
Every day we have progress. Every day we have cooperators meeting, where all of these folks come together. We talk about all the tough, difficult things that we're challenged with out here on this fire, with a bunch of problem solvers.and community. As an outsider, I'm just here to tell you that you have a bunch of people that really, truly care about the community. They are your community. Our time here will be here for as long as the group that you have here with you is here. I just wanted to make sure that we mentioned that you're in great hands, and you're very fortunate.It's been impressive to be a part of the team that well understands how impactful a fire like this is for community, how it touches each and every person. So as RobRoy talked about, you heard the weather, you heard the fire behavior, you heard some of the realities and challenges that the firefighters are dealing with. you have 1,317 folks from different parts of the country here working 24 hours a day to put this fire out just as quickly and safely as we can.
"All that information is here, all the avenues to get information, the lines that we have. We have phone lines and we want to hear from you, we want to answer questions, and we want to make sure that everybody gets accurate information from the operators and the incident management team. So with that, I will just say thank you. Our intent is to keep pushing information to you. Reach out, if you have questions. We'll be here to answer questions after this and thank you again.
Farrell said all that was from the team. "Now we're going to switch over to the folks that are going to be with you after the team is gone. These are the people that you want to really remember. And up first we have the Silver City District Ranger. Elizabeth Toney.
Toney thanked everyone for being there. "I know you're really interested about when you can get back in your homes, when you get back to your work, and how would you get back to normal? I just want you to know that I I'm here with you today. I have been with you from the beginning, and I will continue to be with you for the rest of the time that we have here. I take great pride in being the Silver City District Ranger. It's tough to see 10% of the district on fire. But we're going to get through this together. And I have a great group of people that I work with. I just want you to know the team has done an outstanding job of fighting the heck out of this fire from the initial attack when the forest ignited, through now, we have been fighting this fire from the beginning, and it's a beast, because we have really exceptional conditions right now. When I'm having a rough day,
I'll reach out to my brother, who first is on the defense for the Arizona Cardinals, and he's used to tough seasons. One thing I just want to highlight. On June 16, we had some of the worst fire behavior I ever seen on a fire I was genuinely scared for firefighters out on the line, and this was a complete goal line. Standing here. I just want you to know what is miraculous is that we were able to do this right here. I know it's been really, really tough, but I want you to know that there's been some really great work done on this fire. And our firefighters out there, I'm really proud of them. This is really amazing what they've done. And we've got some work to do, but we're going to get it done. The other thing I'm really proud of is the cooperators, as Andy mentioned, we've really been working together. We've been working through a lot of issues that you know, we haven't had to deal with in a while, and I think we've really come together and are working through all those things. So I'm not going to take up any more of your time. You can talk to me afterwards. I'm happy to talk to anyone about almost anything, and if you want to hear from our other cooperators who have a safe place here,
She received applause.
James Anzalone, with New Mexico forestry division, spoke next "I'm the district forester for the Socorro district forestry division, Energy and Natural Resource Department. I don't have any fancy slides, except for this.
I've been here. Well, one of our responsibilities in division is fire suppression, and so we I've been here on set, working hand in hand with the Gila National Forest and all the other cooperators to assist this and support this passion, suppressing this fire as quickly as we can. The Division across the state organizes fire departments from the county, municipal and volunteer fire departments, and a lot of them have shown up here to support this community. So we we appreciate their effort in doing that and and we'll continue to do that until this incident is wrapped up. I just want to say the entire state is behind this effort. The goal is putting this fire out as soon as possible, and get your lives back home as quickly as possible.
Farrell then talked about the BAER team - burned area emergency response.
"I''m Mike Natharius, recently retired, but long term employee of the Gila National Forest, done a lot of BAER work on the Gila over the years, from 2012 hen I led that team on theWhitewater Baldy, on the 2013 Silver Fire, in 2022, the Black Fire. I have t a lot of experience in this.
"BAER is just one piece of this, but three phases of wildlife for wildfire recovery. You get the fire suppression and then the emergency stable, a stabilization for the burn area emergency response, and that's what we're going to get started here.
"We have a team rolling in Tuesday evening, and I'm very excited about this team. I've worked with many of them over the years. They're also seasoned with 15 or 20 years experience in BAER assessment. I'm, looking forward to working with these folks again. We will consider who might be affected by rain events scheduled here or later on, when the monsoons do get going.
He showed on a slide the fire perimeter from that day, and then these blue lines here are the six watersheds. He said the majority of this fire will drain off toward Sapillo and Lake Roberts and off into the Mimbres Valley. Again, we'll see what transpires with the fire behavior and where it goes. Currently, as of today, there's not been much fire in in the six watershed that drain to the Silver City area.
"We're in the process. I've got at ARC request in up at GPAC, out of Salt Lake City. They provide an image to to us, and then we take that arc map and we complete field assessments and look at ground conditions post fire, ground conditions, loss of litter, loss of vegetation. And we do infiltration rates. We see, with the fire affected by so much heat put on that you have fire-hardened soils. When we have a completed soil burn severity map, that is what the BAER team uses to start their modeling. Soil scientists will model soil erosion, sediment production, hydrologists will model increases in peak flows and once we get this modeling done, then we're going to analyze impact to critical BAER values, and that's human life and safety. And again, the BAER program is held to National Forest System lands, and it includes property, such as roads, trails, natural cultural resources. It will be up to the incident management team here as to when we can stay safely."
Next was Wes Gray, executive director of field operations for PNM. "Our team has been working it seems like day and night with h Team Four to de-energize, re-energize, and work around trying to provide for firefighter safety out there on the fire, specifically in that highway, 35 corridor. We de -nergized everything last week. We understand how disruptive that is for everybody, but for us, the primary thing is to try to protect those values at risk, all those homes that are out there, and protect the firefighters. We don't want a power line to come down and cause some injuries to those firefighters. So that's part of the reason why we de-energized.
"We have been working day and night to coordinate other efforts and planning in case we have to turn something else off to provide for that safety. And you know that working with Team Four and everybody else involved, it's been a tremendous effort to try to coordinate all this stuff and make sure that everybody stays safe on the fire. That being said, I know the burning question is, when's power coming back on? Team Four allowed us in starting yesterday. We had local crews from here in Silver City. We had crews come up from Deming. We patrol every bit of line, from the Wilderness Ranger District Office all the way to the Cliff Dwellings. We found some pole structures that will burn. So the crews got out. We did some work last night late, and then we started again this morning. We replaced four power structures out there. We replaced some wire out there on the fire during the day today. Everything is clear for us. And talking with Team Four, we collaboratively agreed that tentatively right now we will turn everything from the wilderness district up 35 to Sapillo to Gila Hot Springs, all that will be back on tentatively, 9am tomorrow.
"I say that, but the fire specialists are here, talking to you about things that can happen. So, all of that is contingent on no other things happening. But right now, things are looking good. The lines are all holding. So that's positive. You know, the ops team is doing a tremendous job to go through this fire. And we went through we went through a fire in Ruidoso last year. We lost over 1000 power poles in that fire. This incident management team and the firefighters with the Gila and who've come in have done a tremendous job, because we only lost four structures, so they have done a tremendous job in protecting the assets and those values."
Charlene Webb, Grant County Manager, said she was going to talk u for a few minutes about evacuations and "try to address some of the questions that we get and and try to explain how that system works a little bit better. So one of the questions we get is, How will you be notified of an evacuation notice? So you will get an alert on your phone, you will hear it referred to as IPAWS, which stands for Integrated public alert and warning system. It's very similar to an Amber alert. If you get it on your phone, evacuation zones are identified, and then we send out an alert to that specific zone. You don't have to sign up for any service. This comes based upon your location. This system allows us to send an alert county wide, or we can do it as small as a few city blocks. So if you are in an area or a zone, or you've been in that area or zone recently, you're going to receive that alert. In addition to these alerts on your phones, the Grant County Facebook page, the Grant County website and the Gila National Forest Facebook page also provide evacuation information. So we've been working very closely with the team. We push those notifications out to the phones, and then simultaneously, we send that information out on both Facebook pages. So a lot of you are wondering who makes this decision? Who decides who to evacuate? The Grant County Sheriff's Department is the one that orders the evacuations, the sheriff's office, other grant county law enforcement, the New Mexico State Police, the emergency management team, PNM and other cooperators work really closely together to identify the appropriate times to send that notice. If possible, we try to do that during the daytime hours, not do it at midnight only if absolutely necessary during this incident. I just want to commend the incident management team and the Office of Emergency Management. We work really closely together, and I think we've done a good job of pushing that message out efficiently and quickly. A lot of you are wondering, what is Ready, Set Go. This guide explains it. We have several out front. We have these in the lobby of the administration building, and if it's red, it means ready, yellow means set and green means go, and it means to go immediately. All the details are in this, and there's other resources that we have on the Grant County website.
"And a lot of you are wanting to know, how will I be notified when I can go back home? Once the sheriff's office determines that the zone is safe and the closure has been lifted, you will be notified with an alert or law enforcement, and probably a combination of both which will use the information that was collected from you when you were evacuated from your home. We will use the IPAWS system to send those alerts to your phone, but I want everybody in this room to understand it is going to be a little different manner in which we send out that alert when you were evacuated from your homes, or when you're getting these warnings about your your home being placed on a ready or a set, we were able to send that to a specific zone. Now, some of you are no longer in that zone, especially if you are on a Go. So what we will do is we will use a broader message, and probably everybody in this room will get that message whenever it's time for those folks to go back home, so it'll look a little bit different. I also want to make it very clear, there's a lot of information floating around. Law enforcement is the only one that's going to provide official notice for you to return to your home, and that message will be delivered through the IPAWS system. It will be delivered through our Facebook page. Nobody else is going to give you the authorization to go back to your home, so please keep an eye on our Facebook page. Keep an eye on the Gila National Forest Facebook page and also the Grant County website.
"Another question that we're getting is, how do I find out what zone I'm in for future reference. We don't technically have future zones, so the trial evacuation zone map is on. All of the notifications that have been going out, you can find that every day on the Gila National Forest Facebook page. You can also find that on the Grant County Facebook page. If you go to the top right hand corner, there's a little magnifying glass. You can type in your address that will tell you that you're in a zone. Arbitrarily, you won't be in a zone until you get Ready, Set or Go. But if you are curious where you are in relation to all of that, go to that map, put your address in with that little magnifying glass, and it will tell you exactly where you are at the moment. I'll be around if you have more questions. I'd also like to acknowledge the team over here in the corner that's running the Grant County Emergency Observation Center. They are a team of resources from around the state here to support the county in this effort, and we will be around to answer any questions that you have."
Farrell said the next one, the representative of the state of New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, was not able to physically be here, "so we're going to hear her over the phone.
"Good evening, everyone. My name is Ali Rye. I'm the State Director for the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. I deeply regret that I'm not able to be there with you all tonight. I am back at the state emergency operations center making sure that we're coordinating the resources that are needed for this community from both the state and federal level as we move forward. I do want to start off by saying that you guys are in some of the best hands that we have seen over the past year, a couple of years, as we've responded to federal disasters and state disasters regarding the wildfires. The incident management team that you currently have was with us during the Ruidoso fire that occurred last year. The county team and the county emergency operations team is well versed in fires and fire response. The fire is well coordinated and well communicated up to the state. I am an appointed Member of the Governor's team, and we are here on behalf of the governor to help support the county and the resources that are needed in the county. This starts by a conversation being completed by the county up to this day through our declaration process. The way that the state emergency operations center and Department of Homeland Security work is when resources have been exhausted by the local community, they reach out to the state explain that they've exhausted all their resources, and they're requesting the state to come in and help support them. This occurred fairly early on in the fires and as quickly as we possibly can, the governor signed a state of emergency declaration for the fires and started mobilizing resources down there. In fact, a couple of members of my team are in the audience tonight and are supporting the local community with this executive order. It also made the National Guard available to assist with evacuations, traffic control and emergency operations center support. They are there to help assist through response and recovery, and you may eventually start seeing them deploying to help with debris removal of the event of flooding, and for rescue efforts, if flood water rescue teams were needed, and anything else that you may need after the fire of if the flooding occurs. These Guard members are well trained. They have been activated in part of Ruidoso and Roswell, and they are happy to be in this community to help support you guys.
"The next thing I want to talk about is what we call Fire Management Assistance Grant. There's a difference between an FMA grant and a federal declaration grant. So an FMA grant is used to be deployed and mitigate threat to communities from wildfire. So this is intended to keep the response small, so then that way, you are mitigating the potential for a large fire to occur. This grant funding does provide resources and reimbursement to both state agencies and the local communities for filtering operations, emergency protective measures such as road control, road blocks, any kind of distribution of emergency needs such as water or things such as food in the event that we need to start supplying food because of damage done by firefighting efforts and post fire mitigation efforts to help the community not be impacted by any additional cascade impacts off of this fire. The difference between an FMA grant and a federal grant is a federal grant is a new system for the response and recovery for disasters that have caused damage that have met the federal threshold. Currently, right now, we are not in a position where we have met the federal threshold and but we are keeping close track of where we are. So as soon as we do, we can request to the President a federal declaration if we want to get there the resources. They don't include individual assistance or long term, permanent repair work and critical infrastructure. So that is something that would involve community. On behalf of the state of New Mexico, we are here to help support in whichever way we possibly can. We are committed to the response and recovery of this community. And the one thing I will tell you is that my agency, in conjunction with the County Emergency Operations Center, will be here with you guys until the very end, Once response efforts are completed, and we see our federal and state partners leave, the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management will assist Grant County and will be down there to help you guys through the long term recover. Our immediate start to that is state domestic case managers. These are individuals that are employed by the state and are here at no charge to you guys. They are set up at the shelters at the convention center to help individuals identify needs of impact and try to connect them to resources that they just may not have. They have a long list of resources that we have, cultivated and curated over the last couple of years through all these fires, and their standard is prepared to help you guys. They will do intake and collect some information from you guys so we can get back in contact with you at the right time to identify anywhere that there may be gaps in whether it's you need additional food because maybe you lost some of your food in your refrigerator, or you need additional assistance in order to relocate back to your home, or maybe even assist with finding certain resources. If you've been evacuated from your home, you can be aware that there's a couple of ways to get that information if you don't have the chance to go to the shelter or you can write down the Department of Homeland Security's website, and you are able to access that information and ways to be able to get a hold of state managers. I do appreciate the time here. I know that there's a lot of information being handed out to you guys today. I do just want to say that the state is here to support in any way that we most possibly can. We will always have lots of folks down there for the remainder of this incident, your recovery, and we look forward to seeing Grant County recover from this incident.p
Sheriff Raul Villanueva was the last presenter before the questions and answers session.
"First of all, I know that a lot of you are anxious and worried about your properties out in there in the residential areas. I did want to report that my staff, along with the Forest Service, law enforcement, has been out diligently looking at properties, checking to see if there's anything that they have found that has been affected. "So they have confirmed that two camping trailers and three outbuilding structures have been affected by the trout fire. No homes.The respective property owners have been notified by law enforcement that those areas were affected. The areas that were affected are located south of the Camp Thunderbird area by the McKnight Canyon area. They probably happened the day that the fire blew up.
Other structures may have also been impacted. However, the sheriff's office has not yet confirmed those reports. Damage assessments are ongoing. For clarification, the word structure typically refers to any building, such as a home, cabin or commercial facility; an outbuilding refers to a secondary structure on the property, such as a shed or storage unit not intended for residential use. So what I have heard reported from the power department is they lost four structures, which are structures for their utility, which are not inhabitable.
"If your property has been affected, the Grant County Sheriff's Office will notify you. However, our priority is to notify owners of confirmed damage to primary structures, first and foremost. Sheriff's office personnel, along with partnering agencies, continue working tirelessly to patrol affected areas, assess damage and ensure public safety. These efforts remain a top priority as the situation develops. Important notice to residents if your home or property has been impacted by the Trout Fire, the Grant County Sheriff's Office will contact you directly. We understand this is a difficult time, and appreciate the community's patience and cooperation
"With that being said, unfortunately, we're in this situation, and not only are we dealing with the fire, but unfortunately, this attracts the criminal element. And what I mean by the criminal element is, as you are aware, through all the social media and people putting out requests for assistance, for donations, stuff like that.. We have been getting reports from from the public that it has been brought to our attention that numerous things are occurring involving individuals posing as sheriff's office employees are requesting donations. Please be advised that no one from the Grant County Sheriff's Office will call you to solicit any kind of donation, including money, food or nonperishable items. I do ask that you please verify if you get reached out to by somebody. There is a lot of publicity in regards to getting assistance, getting donations from the public, and I would utilize those resources that are verified and confirmed. So if you get a phone call from somebody you don't know, I would verify it. I strongly suggest that it's unfortunate that we have these individuals that are going to try and take advantage of people that are already going through a tough situation, and they want to scam other people out of other things, which is very unfortunate.
"Now, I know that you are all interested in wanting to know when people are possibly going to be able to go back. We are waiting on the green light to ensure that you are going to return your home safely and be able to get there without any issues. We are diligently working to try and get that for you guys. So I want to thank you for your patience, your continued support. I want to thank all personnel, everybody that has been involved in this, from the forest service, to the teams that are fighting the fire, to law enforcement, to management. It has been an extremely good team effort, and I want to see that continue to happen. We have a great community that we need to continue to support, and we will get there, and we will get through this all together. So thank you guys, and we will hopefully get you guys home soon.
This completes the presenters. The next article will begin the questions and answers.
