Dark Canyon fire 50 percent contained

OTERO COUNTY – The almost 7-acre fire burning on private land is now 50 percent contained after Otero County, state and federal fire fighters responded to the grass and timber fire around 11:30 a.m. near Highway 130 and Dark Canyon Road Friday, Otero County Emergency Director Paul Quairoli said.

The fire is located about 6 miles south of Cloudcroft.

New Mexico State Forestry spokeswoman Wendy Mason said officials are calling it the Dark fire.

All fire crews were off the fire for the evening except for one fire engine and crew to monitor the fire overnight, Quairoli said.

“Most crews will be back in the morning to complete mop up operations,” Quairoli said Friday night.  

Otero County Emergency Management Director Paul Quairoli said James Canyon, Sacramento-Weed, Boles Acres and Alamo West volunteer fire departments and, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Lincoln National Forest firefighters.

“It only had moderate fire activity,” Quairoli said. “It’s nothing that was horrific or intense fire activity. The concern that I had was we have a cold front moving in. There’s going to be wind activity along with that. We wanted to make sure we had it at least somewhat contained that it would not pop out and travel.”

Mason said the cause of the fire is under investigation at this time.

She said no structures were threatened during the fire.

Mason said firefighters responded to the fire around 11:30 a.m. Friday.

Quairoli said the fire had moderate activity but it was not a fire that would normally occur during fire season.

“The temperatures are cooler,” he said. “There’s a little bit more relative humidity up there. This is the problem with us not having any kind of snow pack or moisture for the winter months. We’re not in a fire season but we never lose the threat of some kind of ignition or fire. There’s not a lot of moisture at all up there right now.”

Quairoli said the fire burned up against the old Scott Able fire burn scar.

“It had very limited fuel on the perimeter,” he said. “That whole area behind Sivells Baptist Camp was burned way back then. There’s not a lot of densely-packed fuels aback there.”