Sometimes it takes fire to fight fire, and sometimes it takes fire to make fire. The US Forest Service, in service of the former instead achieved the latter, and may as well have stayed home and left New Mexico alone last year. As the Santa Fe New Mexican reports, the service has issued a 230-page mea culpa in the Cerro Pelado wildfire that began in late April last year—as a result of a prescribed burn started by the Forest Service itself. As KOAT reports, the fire was the result of a holdover fire, or a fire that lingers under snow after a prescribed burn, often with no signs of smoke or heat. The Cerro Pelado fire burned through more than 45,000 acres in April and May 2022, and nearly burned its way into Los Alamos.
It wasn't the Forest Service's only rodeo with a holdover fire in New Mexico last year: The federal agency already has had to take the blame for controlled burns that spawned the 2022 Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fires, which eventually merged into a monstrosity that became the worst in the state's history as it scorched through 341,000 acres and some 500 homes. The Calf Canyon fire was a holdover fire, while the Hermits Peak fire was a prescribed burn that blew out of control.
All three fires took place in the Santa Fe National Forest, reports the New Mexican. Politicians are predictably unhappy with the news, with Sen. Martin Heinrich noting the "enormous loss" suffered by the state, and his counterpart Sen. Ben Ray Luján putting the Forest Service on blast: "This was extremely reckless," he said. "There's technology to detect these mishaps from occurring, and USFS must do better to ensure this never happens again." (More wildfires stories.)
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