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Midnight Fire

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Unit Information

208 Cruz Alta Road 
Taos, 
87571 
208 Cruz Alta Road 
Taos, 
87571 

Incident Contacts

  • Public Affairs Officer
    Email:
    zachary.behrens@usda.gov
    Phone:
    575-758-6303
    Hours:
    M-F 9AM - 4PM

Midnight Fire Daily Update June 18, 2022

Midnight Fire
Publication Type: News 06/20/2022

Midnight Fire June 18, 2022,
Daily Update, 08:00 AM


Acres: 4,896
Containment: 79% 
Total personnel: 231 
Start Date: June 9, 2022
Cause: Lightning
Location:  4.5 miles NNE of El Rito in Rio Arriba County 
Fuels: Heavy mixed conifer, ponderosa pine, brush, and grass  

Highlights: Unless significant activity occurs, this will be the final written update for the Midnight Fire; continue to watch the Carson National Forest Facebook page where updates on the fire will be shared, as necessary. There are no further public meetings planned concerning the Midnight Fire.

Operations: Yesterday, firefighters began suppression repair efforts. Suppression repair is a series of immediate post-fire actions taken to repair damages and minimize potential soil erosion and impacts resulting from fire suppression activities. This work repairs the hand and dozer fire lines, roads, trails, staging areas, safety zones and drop points used during fire suppression effort and usually begins before the fire is contained. Crews and engines continued to patrol and mop up the sections of uncontained line on the northern perimeter of the fire.
 
Today, firefighters will continue to mop up along the northern edge of fire line, extinguishing or removing burning material near control lines down to the mineral soil, felling fire damaged trees and cooling ash pits to make a fire line less likely to escape and to reduce residual smoke. As this work is completed, these portions of the fire line are considered contained. Additional suppression repair efforts will also begin on the newly contained line.  
 
Southwest Area Incident Management Team 1 will transfer command of the Midnight Fire back to the Carson National Forest and a local Type 4 Incident Management organization on Monday, June 20.   

Evacuations: To view real-time evacuation information around the Midnight Fire, visit: www.tinyurl.com/midnightfiremap. For emergency alerts in Rio Arriba County, sign up here: https://local.nixle.com/signup/widget/i/6807. The Ready, Set, Go evacuation guide is available in English and Spanish here: https://tinyurl.com/RSGNM. For disaster assistance resources, visit: https://www.nmdhsem.org/2022-wildfires/.  
 
Weather: Moderating fire weather conditions are expected along with increased threats for flash flooding in the burn scar area. Winds will remain out of the south with gusts up to 25 mph. 
 
After Fire Flooding and Recovery Resources: Interactive flood and debris flow map: www.tinyurl.com/hermitspeak | After Wildfire New Mexico guide: https://www.afterwildfirenm.org/ 
 
Smoke: An interactive smoke map at https://fire.airnow.gov/ allows you to zoom into your area to see the latest smoke conditions. 

Closures and Restrictions: The Carson National Forest has been under Stage 3 fire restrictions, which closes the Forest, since May 17.

Fire Information: Office Hours: 8:00 AM – 8:00 PM | Phone: 505-445-3203 | Email: 2022.midnight@firenet.gov 
Online: https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/news/8147/  | https://www.facebook.com/CarsonNF