U.S. Forest Service Planned Burn Caused Largest New Mexico Wildfire

A wildfire in northern New Mexico that destroyed at least 330 homes and displaced thousands of people was caused by a planned burn by the U.S. Forest Service, federal fire investigators said Friday.

The Calf Canyon fire escaped containment lines and merged with the Hermits Peak fire, which was also caused by an out-of-control planned burn, to form the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s history.

The combined Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire has burned more than 312,000 acres, threatening remote mountain villages and forcing thousands to evacuate, sometimes repeatedly, over the past two months.

The fire was 47% contained as of Friday morning, the National Wildfire Coordinating Group said.

Planned burns, or prescribed fires, are important wildfire management tools that burn vegetation to limit the potential fuel for such blazes. It is rare for them to grow out of control, officials said.

Debbie Cress, supervisor of the Santa Fe National Forest, said in a statement that the agency was “100% focused on suppressing these fires.”

In response to the fire investigators’ findings, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the federal government must examine its fire management practices and how they account for climate change.

“This is a first step toward the federal government taking full responsibility for the largest wildfire in state history, which has destroyed hundreds of homes, displaced tens of thousands of New Mexicans and cost the state and local governments millions of dollars,” she said in a statement.

In the Western United States, wildfires are burning more frequently and more intensely, and wildfire seasons are growing longer, narrowing the windows for performing prescribed burns. Recent research has suggested that heat and dryness associated with human-caused global warming are major reasons for the increase in bigger and stronger wildfires.

The Forest Service’s chief, Randy Moore, said last week that the agency would pause its use of prescribed fires on the agency’s lands.

Moore said that during the pause, the agency would conduct a 90-day review of its protocols and practices for prescribed fires.

Moore said the Forest Service oversees an average of 4,500 prescribed fires each year, and in “99.84% of cases, prescribed fires go as planned.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .