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Climate & Environment

Forest Service finds its planned burns sparked N.M.’s largest wildfire

The Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak fire began as two separate wildfires that combined to destroy hundreds of homes and displace thousands of people

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May 27, 2022 at 5:39 p.m. EDT
Firefighter Ryan Le Baron watches the fire blaze near the Taos County line as firefighters converged on northern New Mexico to battle the Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon fires on May 13. (Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican/AP)
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Forest Service fire investigators on Friday placed the blame for the Calf Canyon fire — one of two wildfires that combined to become New Mexico’s largest blaze — on a planned burn set over the winter that continued to smolder for months.

In a statement, the Forest Service said that what began as a controlled burn in the Santa Fe National Forest in January, meant to clear away vegetation and prevent catastrophic wildfires in the future, turned into a “sleeper fire.” It overwintered beneath the ground, continuing to burn slowly until it re-emerged in early April.