LEE ROSS, Mountain View Telegraph
Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)

Even though the East Mountains may have dodged a bullet so far this year with the recent rainfall, U.S. Forest Service officials are still warning of a massive fire someday.

Because of the moisture, fire season - the time the district will be in its highest danger of fire - has been cut in half, according to Richard Bustamante, the Sandia Ranger District's fire management officer. That is, if the monsoon season sticks to a schedule and begins in July.

Although the rains have made trees and other plants more fire-resistant, the lower part of the mountain, where most of the houses are, tends to dry more quickly.

Bustamante was one of several speakers at an emergency management fire prevention meeting at Los Vecinos Community Center on June 4.

There were about 20 attendees, many of whom regularly attend regional safety meetings or are active in their neighborhood organizations. There were roughly as many firefighters, Forest Service employees, elected officials and experts in emergency services as there were civilians in the audience. The turn out was not good, according to Sandia District Ranger Cid Morgan.

"(This meeting) ought to be standing-room only," she said. "We're filling you in on how to be safe." She pointed out there are about 22,000 homes in the East Mountains, and about 90 percent of them are surrounded by thick stands of trees and would be nearly impossible to defend in a fire.

The fires that would normally take place in the area have been suppressed for roughly 100 years, which means the density of trees and other fuels for a fire are unnaturally high in the Sandias. Morgan, who is trained as a wildlife biologist, said animals forced into an unnatural ecosystem generally have three options: adapt, move out of the ecosystem or die. She indicated those are probably the options for the people living in the mountains, and they don't seem to have prepared their property and have not moved out.

"I don't think most of the people living up here realize what it's going to be like," Morgan said. "Sooner or later we're going to be slammed upside the head with a howitzer."

Bernalillo County Fire Marshal Chris Gober said residents could call 468-1340 to ask for a site visit, and there are a number of programs that will pay 60 percent to 70 percent of the cost to thin trees.

Copyright 2009 Albuquerque Journal
June 11, 2009