The Bureau of Land Management, in conjunction with Holloman Air Force Base, has commenced a prescribed burn in Socorro County. During this operation, 35 personnel are concentrating their efforts on Red Rio Bombing Range, located on White Sands Missile Range approximately 18 miles west of Carrizozo. This unit is on a live bombing range for Department of Defense aircraft.
Because this area is sheltered from high winds and contains very sparse grass, greater wind speeds, as today, are needed to meet the requirements to implement the burn.
“To safely complete the burn, the BLM has doubled the number of firefighters and firefighting equipment on the ground and we have designated multiple locations or boundaries where we can secure the fire,” said State Director Melanie Barnes with the Bureau of Land Management – New Mexico. “There are 35 personnel monitoring this prescribed fire with a mixture of different capacity engines and utility vehicle-mounted water pumps.”
DoD and the BLM have monitored conditions hourly to make sure we are meeting prescribed parameters, and will continue until ignitions are completed, approximately 6 p.m. Coordination with DoD Range Control Safety Officer and Safety Environmental Liaison, interagency partners, and county officials will continue for several days to monitor and patrol the burn unit.
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