(The Center Square) – What caused the Cerro Pelado fire in April 2022 that burned at least three homes and caused multiple evacuations?
The fire was caused by a mismanaged federal prescribed burn, according to a report from the United States Department of Agriculture.“Our investigation has confirmed that the Cerro Pelado Fire on the Jemez Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest was caused by a holdover fire from the Pino West Piles Prescribed Fire, a debris pile burn. A holdover fire is a fire that smolders undetectably. In this case, despite being covered by wet snow, this holdover fire remained dormant for considerable time with no visible sign of smoke or heat,” Forest Service Southwestern Regional Forester Michiko Martin said in a press release. “This investigation adds to the considerable evidence of how severely the Santa Fe National Forest was affected by extreme environmental conditions caused by historic drought in 2022.”U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, R-New Mexico, reacted to the report by saying the federal government needs to update its prescribed burning policy to ensure this does not happen again. “New Mexico suffered enormous loss during last year’s wildfire season. It is frustrating and deeply concerning to learn now that the Cerro Pelado Fire was also caused by an escaped prescribed fire,” Heinrich said in a press release issued by his office. “The warming climate is making our forests more vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires. That’s a reality that our Forest Service can and must urgently respond to when deciding when and how to do prescribed burns. We cannot catch up to this reality if it takes nearly a year to even make the findings on the Cerro Pelado Fire public. As the Forest Service does the necessary work of updating its modeling and use of prescribed fires, it must also prioritize rebuilding the public’s trust. This will require more transparency and much more concerted and authentic engagement with New Mexicans than the Forest Service has shown up to this point.”Meanwhile, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan-Grisham expressed frustration with what she sees as incompetency from the federal government.“I am – again – outraged over the U.S. Forest Service’s negligence that caused this destruction,” Lujan-Grisham said in the press release. “While climate change and extreme drought continue to plague the Southwest, the Forest Service must abandon their business-as-usual approach to prescribed burns and forest management in our state. I am relieved to hear that the Forest Service will now use technology to prevent this from occurring in the future. We will continue to hold the federal government accountable for each of the disastrous fires they caused in our state last summer.”Natural Resources Department Cabinet Secretary Sarah Cottrell Propst expressed similar frustration. “Once again, the U.S. Forest Service has harmed New Mexicans with their failure to find the remaining heat after a prescribed pile burn intended to protect the very community where structures were lost,” Propst said in the release. “In addition, the U.S. Forest Service failed to promptly disclose the Cerro Pelado Fire’s cause, further harming New Mexicans who have been unable to file insurance claims pending disclosure of the fire’s origin.”The U.S. Forest Service’s report on the Cerro Pelado Fire is available here.
