Our luck has run out........

[ibglowin]

Unbelievable........

They are reporting the fire has burned over 43,000 acres in less than 24 hours.

The Cerro Grande fire back in May 2000 only burned 48,000 acres in 3 weeks. It did burn over 200 homes as well.

It is eerily quiet in the neighborhood. We should be hearing helicopters and planes in the air but the sky's are clear and quiet. I think the resources are spread pretty thin.......

No wind at the moment. Back to staging things for evac,.....

 

[lieu]

Mike,
+ 1 what Bob said. " first and foremost STAY SAFE". Boy is that fire growing fast. That is unbelievable. Did they say how this new fire started?

 

[ibglowin]

We are loading the truck up now. Los Alamos is now under mandatory evacuation. I think White Rock will be OK as winds are headed away from us ATM. Ready for the evac call but hoping we don't get it.

They say it started on private land by a blown transformer. Not sure I am believing it was non-human caused.

 

[Runningwolf]

I hope one is driving the truck and the other that car of yours, or do you already have that safely stashed away?

 

[ibglowin]

Sadly we will leave the roadster behind if evacuated. Our priority is storage space, not horse power.

Its thundering over head as I write this so keep praying for rain or do your rain dance. NO dry lightening strikes!

More thunder again.

We are packed except for the wine but its ready to toss in at the last minute in case we get the call.

Wind is dying down thank goodness.

All for now

 

[Wade E]

Praying for rain for you buddy!!!

 

[Runningwolf]

Mike how about an update, I see you just posted on another thread

 

[ibglowin]

The fires reached our beloved ski hill (which was miraculously spared during the Cerro Grande fire of 2000) last night. We could see the flames even from our house 8 miles down the road from Los Alamos. They have a team in place this AM to protect the main lodge and they believe they can. Spot fires are now as close as 1/2 miles from houses on the Western perimeter of the townsite. The size is now 60,000 acres burned in less than 48 hours.

Today the forecast is for yet another extremely windy day. Our only personal saving grace (here in White Rock) is that the winds will be out of the S, SW that will keep the fires away from us down in White Rock but it could bring them more towards Los Alamos. Due to the constant high winds they have not been able to get any aircraft up to assist with water drops so its strictly boots on the ground firefighting. All of the labs HE (High Explosives, we do alot of HE testing/experiments still) are stored in concrete bunkers underground. All nuke materials are stored in 3ft thick walled concrete vaults underground.

We have a lot of waste that has been moved offsite since the last fire to the underground WIPP repository down in Carlsbad, NM and all remaining drums are stored way down the road away from the main lab only about a mile or two from White Rock. They are strictly low level (solid) rad waste no liquids at all. So much has changed in the last 30 years as to the handling, treatment, and recycling of liquid waste that it's the least of our worries really.

A fire going over a nuke facility would be a huge concern but the lab has done an incredible amount of thinning of trees and other fuel sources to increase the defensible space that we are actually in a pretty darn good position compared to back in 2000.

Today is a make or break day for the fire depending on the wind direction. It could be pushed over the same area that burned back in 2000 which would make it much esier to get control of. Those areas had just started to grow back and green up so there is not much to burn really in comparison to other areas that were spared in 2000.

So appreciate the continued thoughts and prayers for the people who are risking their lives to fight the fire and the people who may lose their homes over the next day or so.

Just had an air crane helicopter fly over head so that's really good to see. We need some air tankers ASAP.

All for now.

 

[Rocky]

It must really be a helpless feeling. We are all thinking about you Mike and trust that all will be well.

 

[Pablo]

I heard it's like a ghost town around there.

 

[OilnH2O]

Just sent you a pm for an update, then found this thread. The air tankers (P2V's) come from Missoula so we know when they are all gone they are as you said, "spread thin."

Bandelier's new visitor center is supposedly only a half mile from the line, so it's down in Frijoles Canyon which is not good as well. Stay safe, Mike!

 

[grapeman]

So Mike, with a mandatory evacuation ordered, why are you still there? Get to safer ground man!

 

[ibglowin]

Los Alamos is evacuated. I live just down the road a bit in the small bedroom community of White Rock. Same zip code as Los Alamos, population about 3500. We are about 800ft lower in elevation which in this part of the country changes the vegetation drastically (much less trees, more rocks!)

 

[ibglowin]

Here is the latest shot of the fire area. I drew in the important areas.Looks like a good chunk of the ski hill is under siege but it could be just spot fires instead of crown fires. Winds have not been too bad still, breezy for sure but not gale force by any means.The lower 50% of the fire has been cut off so I could get a big enough pic to where you can see where I am vs the fire.

You can play with the map by going to GEOmac View

 

[tonyt]

Mike, I've watched the news and thought about you all day. Never thought you were still home posting. Please stay safe.

 

[ibglowin]

Today was a good day. Winds were very favorable and tonight they have laid down like a lamb and the sky above me looks clear, not so clear over Los Alamos but not as bad as previous nights. Winds are supposed to pick up again tomorrow but in a good direction that will not spread it towards unburned areas.

We have been lucky to be so close but out of harms way just enough to not evac. There was a spot fire around 3:00 that looked like it was so close you could walk right to it. Smoke was horrible for the next 3 hours but then the wind picked up and blew it all away.

We are starting to relax a bit but the bags are still packed and parked at the front door. Its kinda like being on vacation but you get to sleep in your own bed at night. Really weird.

Thanks for the continued thoughts for the firefighters and and national guard who are doing a tremendous job keeping us all out of harms way while protecting our homes for those who had to evacuate.

 

[Wade E]

And here its raining here again!!!

 

[Scott]

Those who protect us are always in our thoughts andnow also those who are getting either flooded or burned out, don't know what else to say but a quote from a great movie... Endeavour to Persevere.


Hang in there

 

[Rocky]

Thanks for the update, Mike. I was showing my wife your posts and how you let us know about this fire long before it became big news on the air. It is one of the major stories on TV currently and you were the "first one on the scene."


Be careful and be well.

 

[ibglowin]

Rocky, you do realize this is not the same fire right? That was the Pacheco Canyon fire and is now at ~10,000 acres but 80% contained.

This is another fire that started just this past Sunday, 6 days after the first fire that started across the way from me up above Santa fe. Sadly New Mexico just like Arizona is burning up this Summer......

Here is a pic that shows the size differences and locations of the 2 fires burning around us.