The big Cerro Pelado wildfire outside Los Alamos that has been burning for a month has grabbed the headlines, but it was neither the only wildfire in New Mexico nor the only one to break out near a National Nuclear Security Administration nuclear-weapons site recently.
At the Sandia National Laboratories last week, workers reported the much smaller Lurance brush fire around 11 a.m. on May 17, burning about half a mile from the labs’ Building 9838. Over a two-day effort to beat the fire back, which succeeded on May 18, Sandia decided to evacuate the DOE National Training Center, according to labs’ report about the fire.
The fire wound up burning only about 10 acres, according to Sandia. No one was injured and no property was damaged as a result of the brief blaze.
Meanwhile, federal, state and local authorities said the Cerro Pelado fire near Los Alamos was 92% contained. Firefighters had contained about 70% of the fire by this time last week, at which point the lab reopened its gates to workers who had been telecommuting. Earlier this month, Los Alamos told non-mission-essential people to stay home in case it because necessary to evacuate the town or portions of the county because of the fire.
