| Indios Fire Daily Update 11.06.2024NM Fire Info

Daily Update – Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Hectare: 11,500

Start date: 19 May 2024

Location: 7 miles north of the village of Coyote, NM

Staff: 186

completion: 86%

Fuels: Wood

Highlights: The Northern New Mexico Type 3 Response Team, led by Incident Commander Luke McLarty, assumed command of the Indios Fire from the Southwest Area Response Team 4 on Monday, June 10. The Northern New Mexico team is comprised of members from the Santa Fe National Forest and surrounding areas. They had control of the fire for the first few days of the incident before transitioning to SWIMT 4. The Type 3 team will now complete fire suppression repairs, remove and cool interior fire pockets, and survey the Continental Divide Trail to determine next steps to reopen it.

With successful fire suppression, 86% of objectives have been met and many responders are either being withdrawn and returning to their home units or are being redeployed to assist with other wildfires across the country. Due to reduced fire activity, written updates will now be provided every two days.

Operations: Today, Forest Service staff will explore the entire closed section of the Continental Divide Trail to determine what is needed to safely reopen it to hikers. Hydrologists will study the burn area to determine what repairs and restoration work may be needed to protect the watershed.

The percentage of completion (containment, point protection, and monitoring goals) and containment (where the fire is not expected to be able to spread) remains at 86%, and no further fire spread is expected. The remaining 14% is not officially reported as contained because no control measures have been taken on the north end of the fire due to the steep, inaccessible terrain in the Chama River Canyon Wilderness. Fire managers expect little to no fire spread in this area due to the sparse vegetation and rocky terrain. Large logs and stumps are still smoldering in some areas, but inland most of the lighter fuels have been consumed.

Fire service personnel, including firefighters, heavy equipment operators and forest workers, continue firefighting repair work, including repairing roads and firebreaks, installing water barriers, reseeding disturbed areas, chipping and felling trees that pose a hazard (stumps) along roads and trails.

Weather: Today, skies will clear and temperatures will rise. An isolated rain shower or thunderstorm moving southeast from the Tusas Mountains north of the burn area is unlikely to directly impact the burn area, but gusty downdrafts could impact the area during the afternoon and early evening.

Smoke: Minimal impacts from smoke are expected for the foreseeable future. Lightly dispersed visible smoke will decrease over time. Smoke sensors have been installed and remain in place in the communities of Coyote, Gallina, Cañones, and the Convent of Christ in the Desert. An interactive smoke map is available at https://fire.airnow.gov/. For more information on smoke impacts, visit https://www.env.nm.gov/air-quality/fire-smoke-links/.

Closures: An emergency closure has been declared for the Santa Fe National Forest due to the Indian Fire. The full closure order (#03-10-01-24-04) and map are available on Inciweb. Changes to the closure order were made on Monday, June 10. For Continental Divide Trail hikers affected by this closure, camping and water facilities are available at the Coyote Ranger Station.

inciweb.wildfire.gov/incident-information/nmsnf-indios-wildfire / nmfireinfo.com 575-323-2290 / x.com/SantafeNF / facebook.com/santafeNF / [email protected]