Las Conchas Fire

We decided to voluntarily evacuate to our friends' house in Cedar Crest, near Albuquerque, late Sunday evening. The smoke was bad, and the fire was growing. We're planning to go home for a while tomorrow (Friday), but the smoke may make us leave again. We also had a crazy thing happen before the fire even started: My parents were visiting last week, and on Friday afternoon the drain to our washer/kitchen sink/dishwasher. This happens about once a year and we call Roto Rooter or the local plumber to come snake the drain. However, since it was a Friday evening, we decided to suffer through the weekend and get it taken care of on Monday in order to avoid a weekend charge. Then the fire started on Sunday, and we have spent the week in the East Mountains. With the evacuations and such, I'm not sure the plumbers are working. I called the one in White Rock this morning and left a message, but I wouldn't be surprised if I don't hear back from them. So, even though we're going home tomorrow, we might not be able to stay long. If it's smoky and we can't do laundry or run the dishwasher, then we'll probably go up to Colorado to spend some time with Grammy and Grampy.

Some interesting facts:
* The Las Conchas fire grew from nothing to about 45,000 acres in less 24 hours.
* The Cerro Grande fire of 2000 burned about 45,000 acres total, over about 2 weeks.
* The Los Alamos fire chief (and everyone else involved) has continued to express amazement at how fast the fire is spreading because of the drought conditions.
* As of sometime today, the Las Conchas fire will exceed the current New Mexico record-holding fire (in the Gila National Forest in 2003) as the largest fire in the state. The Gila Forest fire burned about 94,000 acres. Today, in day 4 of the Las Conchas fire, at least 94,000 acres have been burned.
* The officials are reporting 3% containment.
* We're lucky to live close to the Los Alamos National Laboratory: a LOT of money and personnel are putting out the fire in order to keep the lab safe (the news items are the nuclear waste storage points).
* In the four days we've been watching the news, I think 20 fires have been reported in New Mexico. Six are still burning and are causing evacuations and havoc.
* All of the forests have been closed in anticipation of the July 4th weekend. We're staying with friends who live off the Sandia Crest Highway and have to show our IDs and explain we're staying with friends up the road before they'll let us go by. The governor doesn't have the power to ban the sale of fireworks, but she's doing everything else in her power to try to keep everyone safe and to prevent more fires from starting.
* I personally think anyone who uses fireworks this season deserves to burn up in the fire of their own making.