Tag Archives: New Mexico

Wildfires in California, New Mexico trigger evacuations

Handout photo of a firefighter battling the Sherpa Fire in Santa Barbara, California

By Brendan O’Brien

(Reuters) – Firefighters worked into early Friday morning to try to contain a growing wildfire in coastal Southern California and a larger blaze in rural New Mexico as hot weather fed flames that triggered hundreds of evacuations.

The Sherpa Fire in California grew to about 1,400 acres (560 hectares) overnight after forcing authorities to evacuate 400 homes and businesses and to close part of the 101 Freeway, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and fire information center InciWeb.

About 1,200 firefighters were trying to keep the fire from exploding out of control as airplane tankers and helicopters dropped water, according to officials and online videos.

The blaze, which ignited on Wednesday in a wilderness area northwest of Santa Barbara, has consumed chaparral and tall grass in the Los Padres National Forest, according to InciWeb.

Because of the fire, officials said they had closed two state beaches and some ranch land, forcing out campers and horses.

Southeast of Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Dog Head Fire, which broke out on Tuesday about 6 miles (10 km) northwest of the town of Tajique, has also forced evacuations and grown to about 16,000 acres (6,500 hectares) overnight.

Governor Susana Martinez declared a state of emergency and ordered the state’s National Guard to be prepared to assist if needed, according to a statement from her office.

The fire destroyed 24 homes and 21 other structures, InciWeb said.

The blaze has burned through timber in central New Mexico, pushing heavy smoke toward cities more than 100 miles (160 km) away as flames spread through a largely unpopulated area, state fire information officer Peter D’Aquanni said in a phone interview on Thursday.

D’Aquanni said winds could shift the flames to the east as more than 600 firefighters tackle the blaze.

Torrance County Sheriff Heath White said on Thursday that his office was evacuating about 200 people.

The National Weather Service on Friday predicted dry, windy and hot weather for the region through next week, which could lead to more wildfires.

The weather service issued excessive heat warnings for areas in the U.S. Southwest, including California, Nevada and Arizona and New Mexico. Its forecast office in Phoenix predicted temperatures as high as 119 degrees Fahrenheit (48.3 Celsius) in the coming days, which would exceed record highs.

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

Wildfires in California, New Mexico trigger hundreds of evacuations

Sherpa fire

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Hundreds of people have evacuated to escape a wildfire in coastal Southern California and a larger blaze in rural New Mexico as hot weather feeds the flames, raising health concerns in other regions, officials said on Thursday.

Santa Barbara Sheriff Bill Brown told a news conference his deputies had asked occupants of 400 homes and businesses to evacuate structures in areas threatened by flames from the California fire. Campers, and horses on ranches have also been forced out, officials said.

The blaze, which ignited on Wednesday in a wilderness area northwest of Santa Barbara, has consumed chaparral and tall grass in the Los Padres National Forest, blackening some 1,200 acres (490 hectares), according to tracking website InciWeb.gov.

About 500 firefighters were trying to hold it from exploding out of control as airplane tankers and helicopters dropped water, officials said.

“There isn’t a lot of marine layer (ocean humidity) so not great conditions for firefighting,” Diane Black, a joint incident command manager, said in a phone interview.

Winds drove the so-called Sherpa Fire, named after a ranch near where it started, toward the Pacific coast, leading authorities to evacuate two state beaches and some ranch land, according to information from InciWeb.gov and the Santa Barbara County website.

The blaze also approached the 101 Freeway overnight, forcing authorities to close it until Thursday morning.

In New Mexico, the so-called Dog Head Fire which broke out on Wednesday about 6 miles (10 km) northwest of the town of Tajique has forced evacuations and grown to more than 12,000 acres (4,900 hectares).

It has burned through timber in central New Mexico, pushing heavy smoke toward cities more than 100 miles (160 km) away as flames spread through a largely unpopulated area, fire information officer Peter D’Aquanni said in a phone interview.

Torrance County Sheriff Heath White said his office was evacuating about 200 people.

D’Aquanni said that, as more than 600 firefighters tackle the blaze, winds could shift the flames to the east.

“There’s not many structures in front of that direction if it goes where we think it’s going,” he said.

The National Weather Service has issued heat advisories for Missouri and southwest Iowa, with temperatures in the mid-90s Fahrenheit (35 Celsius), climatologist Bryan Peake said in a phone interview.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Environmental Protection Agency Admits Toxic Sludge Will Contaminate Water into Mexico

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is admitting the toxic sludge released into the Animas River by an EPA work crew is going to pollute rivers all the way into Mexico.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy admitted waters will be polluted into Utah, New Mexico, the Navajo Nation reservation and into Mexico.  McCarthy said at a press conference they would use the “full breadth of the agency” to try and clean up their spill.

“We’re working around the clock,” McCarthy said. “It pains me to no end to see this happening.”

While they admitted they are the source of the leak, EPA official say they still don’t know exactly what happened to cause the toxic waste to reach the river.

“We’ve launched an independent investigation to see what happened, and we’ll be taking steps to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again,” Shaun McGrath, the EPA administrator in charge of the region, told reporters on Monday.

Officials said the Animas River and the San Jan River into which the Animas feeds will be closed to the public at least until August 17th because of the toxic metals in the water.   Durango, Colorado and the New Mexico cities of Aztec and Farmington have been forced to shut off their river intakes for resident water supplies.

The EPA workers also admitted that many of the heavy metals will sink into the sediment of the rivers and could be stirred up when a major storm hits the region causing flooding or increased water flow.

Claims are now being made against the EPA by local residents who have suffered hardship because of the spill.  Under federal law, the EPA is financially responsible for damaged caused by any mistakes made in clean up of toxic sites.

EPA Releases 3 Million Gallons of Toxic Sludge into Southern Colorado River

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is coming under fire after first releasing a toxic plume of contaminated mine water into the Animas River and then misleading the public about the size of the spill.

The EPA initially told the public last week the amount of toxic waste, which had turned the Animas River orange, was one million gallons.   The EPA admitted Sunday the spill was actually closer to three million gallons.

On Sunday, Shaun McGrath of the EPA told reporters in a teleconference that the mine is still spilling 500 gallons of toxic water a minute but that it’s being contained in four lakes near the site of the spill where it can be treated by EPA officials.

EPA tests showed the level of arsenic in the river topped out at 300 times the normal level and lead reached 3,500 times the normal level.  

“Yes, those numbers are high and they seem scary,” Deborah McKean, chief of the EPA Region 8 Toxicology and Human Health and Risk Assessment, told reporters. “But it’s not just a matter of toxicity of the chemicals, it’s a matter of exposure.”

Residents who have water wells near the river have been told not to use their water until they can have it tested for the toxic chemicals.  The toxic sludge has been moving downriver into parts of the Navajo Nation indian reservation and into northwest New Mexico.

The EPA has been criticized by state officials in Colorado and New Mexico for failing to report the incident to them.  New Mexico’s Governor, Susana Martinez, said that the New Mexico government only learned of the spill when local indian nation officials reported something was wrong with the river.

“It’s completely irresponsible for the EPA not to have informed New Mexico immediately,” she said after flying over the affected rivers.

Judge Orders Ten Commandment Display Removed

A federal judge has ordered the city of Bloomfield, New Mexico to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from city property in response to a lawsuit from anti-Christianists.

U.S. District Judge James A. Parker issued a ruling that the 3,000 pound monument violated the First Amendment because its existence meant a government “establishment of religion.”

“In view of the circumstances surrounding the context, history, and purpose of the Ten Commandments monument, it is clear that the City of Bloomfield has violated the Establishment Clause because its conduct in authorizing the continued display of the monument on City property has had the primary or principal effect of endorsing religion,” he wrote in his ruling.

The monument was placed in 2011 after the city passed a resolution allowing private citizens the right to post historical displays at the Bloomfield City Hall.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city to make sure the reference to Judaism and Christianity was removed from public view.

“I am surprised and had never really considered the judge ruling against it because it’s a historical document just like the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights,” Mayor Scott Eckstein said to the Farmington Daily Times. “The intent from the beginning was that the lawn was going to be used for historical purposes, and that’s what the council voted on.”

Teenagers Arrested For Beating Homeless Men To Death

Three New Mexico teenagers are in custody after they reportedly beat two homeless men to death and then went to one of the teen’s homes to hang out.  Alex Rios, 18, and two boys aged 16 and 15 are being held on $5 million bail.

A third homeless man who survived the beating and was able to crawl to a nearby home for help identified the boys.  He told police that one of the boys lived near the location of the attack.

Police found the boys hanging out at the home described by the victim.  One of the boys hadn’t even bothered to clean the blood from the victims off his clothing.

Investigators say the two dead men were beaten so badly they’re having trouble making any kind of identification.  An Arizona driver’s license was found at the site but there was no way to use it to make a facial comparison.

The criminal complaint says the 15-year-old was “very angry” over a breakup with a girlfriend so they went looking for someone to beat and rob.

“I personally, after reading that complaint, was sick to my stomach because of the nature of the violence and the age of the offenders,” police spokesman Simon Drobik said.

New Mexico Wildfire Ravaging Indian Reservation

The Navajo Reservation in New Mexico is facing down a huge wildfire that is raging into its fourth day.

The blaze, called the Assayii Lake Fire, has burned more than 11,000 acres of land and is still uncontained despite hundreds of firefighters on the scene and multiple passes by aircraft dumping water and fire retardant on the area.

The fire is believed to have been caused by humans and has been driven by winds of at least 42 miles per hour according to Navajo Nation officials.  Sheep herding residents of the Chuska mountains were forced to evacuate from the area because of the uncontrolled blaze.

Navajo Nation officials told Reuters that the fire has burned out some of the reservation’s premiere grazing lands.  The authorities are trying to “protest culturally significant lands and historic sites” that are in the path of the fire.

Several communities have been ordered to evacuate and at least 50 residences have been destroyed or damaged by the flames.  More firefighters are being called to the site to try and control the flames.

New Mexico Nuclear Dump Has Second Radiation Leak

New air samples taken near the New Mexico nuclear storage facility where a leak had been detected after an underground fire now has a second leak of radiation.

Department of Energy officials confirmed that an elevated radiation reading was found outside the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico on March 11th.

The leak comes less than a month after a Valentine’s Day leak contaminated 17 works and closed the facility to incoming waste.  The plant is the only storage site for nuclear waste from the country’s bomb program.

Officials say it’s likely the contamination in the air comes from previous radioactive deposits on the inside of exhaust ducts.  The low-level release of radiation is believed to happen on a rare basis but is what is called “well within safe limits.”

There has been no date offered for the opening of the plant after shipments were stopped following a fire on a truck hauling salt through the repository’s tunnels in February.

More Radiation Leaks Found At Nuclear Storage Site

The nation’s first underground nuclear waste site is reporting more airborne radiation leaks.

The Department of Energy said Monday they found radiation in air samples collected last week at various monitoring stations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, New Mexico, and also in some stations outside of the grounds of the Plant.

The Plant’s first confirmed leak of radiation came last week.

The site is the storage location for plutonium-based waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and other government nuclear locations.

Scientists and Plant officials insist that the public is not in any danger from the radiation release.

New Mexico Middle School Teacher Praised In Stopping Shooting

An eighth grade social studies teacher at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell, New Mexico is being hailed as a hero for stepping in front of the gunman who wounded two students in a shooting Tuesday.

John Masterson stepped in front of the gunman after he started firing in the gym with a 20-gauge sawed-off shotgun.

“He stood there and allowed the gun to be pointed right at him so there would be no more young kids hurt,” Gov. Susana Martinez told a prayer vigil Tuesday.

Two students were wounded in the shooting.  Kendal Sanders, 13, is hospitalized in serious condition and her family told reporters that she is improving.  An 11-year-old boy is in critical condition after two surgeries and hospital officials have not updated his condition.

Police authorities have said they do not know the motive for the shooting but discovered that the shooter apparently warned other students to stay home Tuesday.