By Andrew Hay
(Reuters) – Pressure to meet objectives may have led the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico to ignore risks posed by a controlled burn that sparked the state’s largest wildfire, an agency review found.
Increased prescribed fire goals from U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore and demands from local managers created “unrealistic expectations” and “acceptance of unforeseen risk” around the April 6 burn east of Santa Fe, the study https://www.wildfirelessons.net/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=b6bc7e71-ecca-a7b3-16fb-22b5d69855ae&forceDialog=0 said.
Moore ordered the review, released on Tuesday, and a 90-day-pause to prescribed burns to see what lessons could be learned from the fire.
The study found the burn was lit “under much drier conditions than recognized” during the state’s persistent drought.
It quickly ran out of control and merged with another blaze started by the USFS to torch 341,000 acres and destroy 432 homes in mountain communities.
“District fire employees perceived pressure to ‘accomplish the mission,’ which may have led to taking greater risk,” the review of the prescribed burn concluded.
President Joe Biden’s infrastructure act earmarked $3 billion toward reducing wildfire risk and quadrupled the area some USFS regions must burn and thin, according to the report.
USFS employees in New Mexico were focused on complying with agency policy rather than adapting burn plans to changing environmental conditions, it said.
“Training and education efforts are often outdated and do not incorporate the latest tools or the latest fire science,” the report found.
Moore, in a statement accompanying the review, said, “Drought, extreme weather, wind conditions and unpredictable weather changes are challenging our ability to use prescribed fire as a tool to combat destructive fires.”
Biden said Congress must approve funding to compensate families who lost homes in the fire. Locals are joining a planned lawsuit to sue the USFS.
(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; Editing by Donna Bryson and Lisa Shumaker)
