From mending fences to planting seeds, firefighters are nearly done fixing the damage they caused while battling the largest wildfire New Mexico’s ever seen.
With suppression efforts like bulldozing vegetation and trees, as well as igniting controlled burns, crews tore up land and damaged property on and around the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon burn scar. They’ve been tracking what they destroyed — roads, fencing, culverts, cattle guards and more — and are repairing it all now.
As of Tuesday, federal fire personnel had cleaned up 95% of the total 3,259 damaged structures or land in private, state and federal areas, said Dee Hines, spokesperson with the incident management team on the fire.
But people can still request repairs in Colfax, Mora, San Miguel, Santa Fe and Taos Counties. Crews have addressed 624 calls for help on private land as of Friday, spokesperson Cass Cairns said.