At least 330 homes have been destroyed and thousands of people have been evacuated from the fire-ravaged area of New Mexico. In mid-April, an elderly couple also died in the flames. The costs for the extinguishing work already amount to the equivalent of 1.3 billion Swedish kronor – and increase by about 50 million for each passing day.
That was in April as two smaller fires merged into what became the most extensive forest fire ever in the state.
“The devastation caused by these two fires is immeasurable and will be felt for generations,” said Leger Fernandez, a New Mexico congressman. AP.
Previously, one has been traced back to April 6, when a nature conservation burning intended to clear out smaller trees and shrubbery spread beyond the forest rangers’ control.
Investigators have now found a similar origin to the second fire. They say the source was a planned winter fire outside Santa Fe in January, which lay dormant for months before flaring up again on April 9.
The conclusion does that the responsibility for the natural disaster is increasingly being shifted to the federal forest administration – and the state’s governor Michelle Lujan Grisham therefore demands that the US government cover the costs of the damage completely.
“A first step towards the federal government taking full responsibility,” she says of the investigation, according to AP.
Conservation burning is often used in areas that are too large to be cleared by machine. According to Randy Moore, head of the forest administration, 99 percent of the fires go according to plan.
Last week, however, he decided to stop all planned burning for 90 days while the routines are reviewed. Moore then pointed to extreme fire risk and adverse weather as the cause. The disaster in New Mexico was not mentioned as contributing to the measure.
Over the next three months, the forest administration will ensure that the methods for nature conservation burning are based on the latest research and that employees have the knowledge required to fire safely.