Las Conchas fire rages out of control on Santa Clara Pueblo

July 01, 2011

wind has certainly been an issue for crews battling the las conchas fire, trying to keep theflames from reaching los alamos the blaze is close to becoming the state's largest wildfire ever. jeremy jojola has been talking to firefighters and joins us live from los alamos with the very latest. jeremy. day five of the las conchas fire---at this hour it continues to burn just outside of los alamos along the ridges of the mountains. the fire is now burning out of control to the north on santa clara pueblo land. some sacred areas to the pueblo have been destroyed. santa clara pueblo governor walter dasheno calls the fire "devestating" for his people. this 93-thousand acre fire is now on the verge of becoming the state's largest fire on recrod... it's predicted by fire officials it will eak the 100-thousand acre mark. jerome macdonald/southwe st management team: 11:42:33:00 "it's an indication of how severe this fire season is, and we're seeing, as firefighters, we're seeing extreme fire behavior and things we haven't seen in our careers, and the kind of growth we haven't seen in our careers." also today a slight scare in los alamos canyon.... that's a canyon full of trees and homes that leads into los alamos neighborhoods. the fire crept in there a little bit ....that prompted firefighters to do some controlled-burning in the canyon. but fire officials are confident still the fire will not move into los alamos... as jeremy mentioned, the las conchas fire is on tck to become the largest wildfire in new mexico history. as we've been telling you, the fire has already burned more than 92-thousand acres. the largest wildfire in recorded state history was the dry lakes fire in 2003. that fire burned more than 94-thousanacres near the gila national forest. burn off operations continue this evening at five locations around los alamos national laboratory. crews are also usingegetation mulching machines to reduce brush around the lab. the latest word from officials is that there have been no additional fires burning on lab property and all nuclear and hazardous materials remain safe. the lab will remain closed tomorrow.