As of this writing, the Gail Fire near the Southern New Mexico town of Mayhill had been 25% contained according to nmfireinfo.com. And, as it so happens, the state Forestry Division also kicked off its online Wildfire Awareness Week programming on March 24 with the theme “Spark Safety Not Wildfires.” According to Forestry Division Communications Coordinator George Ducker, the week is meant to keep New Mexicans informed on important Forestry Division-related issues through social media, nmfireinfo.com and other online spaces. There really is no better time than the present to cultivate that awareness—y’know, given the current state of the planet. We spoke with Ducker to get the scoop on Wildfire Awareness Week. This interview has been edited for concision and clarity. (Adam Ferguson)
Plain and simple, what is the aim of Wildfire Awareness Week?
New Mexico gets warm and dry, and our fire season can often start before some other states. We want to remind people we are stepping into the warmer months and we have the wind season in April coming up. It’s a way to remind people of the things they can do to prepare their homes and properties to defend against wildfire. But also to remind people that humans are the cause of most wildfires. In New Mexico, four out of five wildfires are started by humans and the other one out of five are lightning-caused fires, which we mostly get during the monsoon season. Regarding how people can get involved, I would love to be able to get events planned, but the majority of it is going to be through social media posts. We’ll be doing a lot of social media posts directed around the top three human caused starts in New Mexico.
What are the first things we all should and can do if confronted by a wildfire?
Get prepared beforehand. You’ve got all the time in the world to get out there and create defensible space around your house, and what that means is really clearing out all the vegetation and anything that’s combustible within five feet of your home. Five feet doesn’t seem like a lot, and people get attached to some of the organic things that are within five feet of their house, but you really want to just clear that five feet so embers aren’t hitting your house. Embers are actually the leading cause of why homes burn. Think of thousands of tiny flaming arrows that can travel up to a mile in high winds. Clearing that space around your house makes sure those embers fall to the ground and they’ll smolder out. If you have grass or shrubs there, those embers will catch on fire and it could catch the rest of your house on fire. You can also pack a go bag. We really want folks to be able to think about these things now in what we call “blue sky conditions,” where nothing’s wrong, but when something does go wrong, you just need to grab that bag and be ready to evacuate. Then it’s time to turn on the TV or the radio and check social media. Social media is kind of a dirty word these days, but it really is the best way to find out whether your area is coming under evacuation.
What should people understand about the difference between natural wildfires that serve a purpose in nature versus wildfires that are human-caused?
Well, first of all, fires play a critical role in nature and act as a cleansing agent by helping the soil and trees in many different ways. I think over a period of time fire became kind of demonized. When the US Forest Service was established in 1905 they started working towards this 10 o’clock rule put in place in the 30s stating fires needed to be put out by 10am the next day. So, until the 1970s you had a culture of putting out fires as soon as they start and a lot of these are lightning-caused fires happening out in the wilderness or in national parks. This allowed forests to overgrow and we see they are still overcrowded after 100 years of that kind of management. An important distinction with the Forestry Division, is that we operate on private and state land. The Forest Service is a federal agency that operates on federal lands. We encourage landowners to thin out trees on their property to create space between those trees to keep the ecological system healthy, while still defending against high intensity wildfires. Humans are increasingly moving into what we call the wildland urban interface, which means humans are increasingly developing and building homes on the edge of forests. Nobody, with the exception of arsonists, wants to start a wildfire, but things happen and they come down to humans making mistakes and bad judgment. Maybe they parked their car over tall dry grass when they’re going hiking in the middle of the summer. The thing that’s most surprising to me is the amount of fires started by people using tools or machinery outside. It’s the third biggest cause of human-caused wildfires in New Mexico. People take the wood bench or welder out and these things create sparks, and those sparks travel. People need to be really careful working outside with tools, not just the individuals, but folks working on crews. It’s an important message for people and for bosses and managers as well.
