Subject: Forest Fire near APO

From: Bruce Gillespie

Submitted: Fri, 12 May 2000 15:30:24 -0600

Message number: 431 (previous: 430, next: 432 up: Index)

All:

You may be hearing news reports of a "new" big fire in NM near 
Cloudcroft.  It actually started yesterday afternoon about 5 miles 
east of APO.  High westerly winds and dry conditions have resulted in 
a ~20,000 acre blaze which has moved directly away from the 
observatory over the past 24 hours--we are OK for now.  Several small 
communities and ranches may have sustained damage or are threatened. 
Many hundreds of volunteers and Forest Service firefighters are 
working on containment, to which I don't how successful they have 
been.  Solid information about the fire has been difficult to get.

The winds at APO and NSO Sunspot have been persistent from the west 
for the past 24 hours, and are subsiding somewhat.  It is not felt 
that either site is in immediate danger, but evacuation preparations 
are being taken.  There is a forecast for the winds to shift 
tomorrow.  Fire crews are working to create a firebreak at the 
original source of the fire in case the winds shift and the fire 
tries to flare back in our direction.

If the observatories become threatened by a change in the fire 
situation, only the trained APO and NSO fire fighting personnel will 
remain and work with the Forest Service and other agencies to protect 
the facilities.



Bruce Gillespie


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