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Forest Service investigators determined the Calf Canyon Fire was
caused by a "burn pile" of branches that the agency thought was
out but reignited on April 19, the Santa Fe National Forest said
in a statement.
That blaze on April 22 merged with the Hermits Peak Fire, which
the USFS started with a controlled burn that went out of control
on April 6, the agency previously reported.
The combined blaze has so far torched over 312,320 acres(126,319
hectares) of mountain forests and valleys, an area approaching
the size of greater London, and destroyed hundreds of homes.
"The pain and suffering of New Mexicans caused by the actions of
the U.S. Forest Service – an agency that is intended to be a
steward of our lands – is unfathomable," New Mexico Governor
Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
Lujan Grisham said the USFS investigation was a step towards the
federal government taking full responsibility for the
destruction of property, displacement of tens of thousands of
residents, and millions in state spending caused by the fire.
"The Santa Fe National Forest is 100 percent focused on
suppressing these fires," SFNF Supervisor Debbie Cress said in
the statement.
Blazing a more than 40-mile-long (64-km-long) path up the Sangre
de Cristo mountains, the fire has destroyed watersheds and
forests used for centuries by Indo-Hispano farming villages and
Native American communities.
(Reporting By Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Sandra
Maler)
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