BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

The Cerro Pelado Fire has burned 43,376 as of Wednesday morning, according to Great Basin #1 Incident Management Team public information officer Mary Cernicek.

“For today, there’s a red flag warning again. We are expecting winds of about 30 mph with gusts to 45 mph out of the south. The change is going to come tonight because we are expecting a cold front in the area and that will change all the wind direction to come out of the west,” she said.

The hottest part of the fire as read by last night’s infrared flight was all in the east side, especially where the fire is pushing up against Road 287. Crews are working to hold Road 287 and keep that as one of the primary lines.

“Night shift worked again Monday night and were moving, trees, debris and logs to make sure that the roadways were open so that the crews could get in there for day shift,” Cernicek said.

A new heli-well was put in place closer to the northeast corner of the fire to shorten the helicopters’ turnaround time. A contingency crew will be downhill of Pajarito Mountain on the Valles Caldera side looking for options for “back-up to the back ups”, Cernicek said.

Cernicek and other public information folks for the fire may be seen in town where they are available to chat with people and answer questions. She was expecting to be at Ruby K’s Bagel Cafe around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning.

Cernicek said the team is working out of an office at the White Rock Visitor Center but will are not meeting with the public there. Instead, five members of the public information team will be out in the public and will be placing information boards for the community.

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