By Duane Barbati
The Alamogordo Daily News
ALAMO WEST, N.M. — County volunteer firefighters have contained a smoldering sawdust and wood chip pile fire in the 1200 block of Zuni Drive, an Alamo West fire department spokesman said.
Alamo West volunteer fire chief Gary Atwell said the fire is about the size of a football field, or about 120 yards by 53 yards.
“It’s very hard to put this type of fire out,” Atwell said. “It’s what we call a deep-seeded fire. It starts on the top and gets down into the wood chips.”
He said the wood chip and sawdust piles are 20 feet high.
“We’re drawing fire lines, using heavy equipment to roll the piles over and hosing it down,” Atwell said. “We’re also digging pits, putting it in the pits and hosing it down.”
He said firefighters are keeping the fire contained and stopping it from spreading into the desert.
“We’re trying to cut more fire lines around it,” Atwell said. “It’s going to burn for about a week. We don’t want it to take off.”
He said one firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion and later released.
Atwell said no structures or equipment were damaged.
Volunteer firefighters from Alamo West, Boles Acres, Oro Vista and Dungan responded to the back of a wood manufacturing business at 1264 Zuni Drive around 4:36 p.m. Sunday. The building of the manufacturing business had no signs displayed on it.
Atwell said the owner of the business was in California at the time of the fire.
“We had about 10-foot flames on top of the piles Sunday,” Atwell said. “We contained it into an area because we knew it would smolder and burn. The wind picked up and carried embers across our fire lines at about 2 p.m. Monday into unburned areas.”
He said crews contained the fire for about seven hours on Sunday.
“We had 36 personnel, six engines and four tender trucks on this fire Sunday,” Atwell said. “This type of fire can burn for a long time.”
He said Alamogordoans can expect to see smoke southwest of town.
“We also have the smoke issue,” Atwell said. “As long as we have a breeze blowing southwest, it will dissipate the smoke. Residents are going to see smoke for a while.”
He said firefighters had to deal with 30 mph to 40 mph wind gusts on Sunday.
“The danger of the gust was firefighters had to extinguish spot fires in the desert areas,” Atwell said. “We’re continuing to investigate the cause of the fire. The cause of the fire will probably be unknown because the area of ignition has been disturbed while firefighters were trying to put it out.”
He said firefighters used an excavator and two front-end loaders owned by the business to fight the fire.
“We have about 20 firefighters out here,” Atwell said Monday. “We’re going to suggest to the business and employees to separate the wood chip piles into smaller piles for a fire break between them. It will help us with a smaller fire.”
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