Trigo Fire Update 5.05.2008 10:00pm
Incident: Trigo Fire Wildland Fire
Released: 5/5/2008
Firefighters working on the Trigo Fire east of Belen, NM, continued to strengthen fire line and burn out remaining pockets of fuel. Small burnouts and hand line work by skilled crews are paying off.
After a through reconnaissance flight of the area, fire managers are guardedly optimistic that the hard work done by hundreds of firefighters is showing results. The south and southwest perimeters of the fire are cold and some rehabilitation may begin as early as tomorrow. Even as the firefighting efforts continue on portions of the fire, rehabilitation planning is underway.
Fire lines are constructed to remove vegetation and ground litter, such as pine needles, starving the fire of fuel. After the fire threat is past the bare ground needs to be rehabilitated to prevent erosion from storm water runoff. This entails seeding, raking soil and litter back over the seed so bare ground is covered. In steep terrain, "water bars" small humps, which slow the speed of and redirect water away from the steepest part of the slope are built then seeded and covered.
Rehabilitation on hand dug line is conducted by hand crews. Dozer line is rehabbed with the same dozers, which built it.
The most important issue - as always, will be safety when working around burned or even partially burned trees. Even the slightest breeze may cause damaged portions of these trees to fall.
Whitney's Team web address see under Cooperators - Team Web Site Jeff Whitney's Southwest Area
