As of late Tuesday, the Cerro Pelado fire in New Mexico was five-and-a-half miles away from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory, with no evacuations ordered so far around the federal facility.
Lab management could reduce its on-site headcount, however, if the fire inches much closer to Los Alamos National Laboratory or the town, according to a joint press release Tuesday from the lab, Los Alamos County and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).
“This afternoon, Laboratory officials announced that if the fire moves closer to Laboratory property, all employees who can telework could be shifted to Maximum Telework status as part of an effort to reduce the number of employees who might have to evacuate” if the fire threatens Los Alamos,” according to the press release.
Management will make this call “if the main body of the fire moves northeast and reaches Dome Road,” taking into consideration emergency management officials’ assessment of factors like wind speed and fire behavior, according to the release.
As of Tuesday evening the fire has spread across about 25,000 acres around the Jemez Mountains, according to online information distributed by emergency agencies. The fire started on Friday April 22 “during an epic wind event,” according to the multijurisdictional fire update Facebook page. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Los Alamos County has experienced two major wildfires in the past 20 years or so that threatened operations at the national laboratory, Cerro Grande Fire in 2000; and the Las Conchas Fire in 2011 the DOE Office of Inspector General said in a report on wildfire prevention in February 2021.
“Today we have southwest winds around the fire area” with gusts up to 35 miles per hour, said Scott Stearns, the incident meteorologist with the National Weather Service, who spoke at an online briefing on the fire Tuesday. Winds should diminish a bit Wednesday, he said.
Smoke levels could be in the hazardous level over the next couple of days, said Jenny Perth, a smoke specialist who spoke during the briefing. Patchy smoke should extend through Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
