Los Alamos Fire 2011 [Las Conchas Fire]

So, many of you have probably heard about the fire just outside of Los Alamos, NM. Jack and I both work in Los Alamos as well as attend church up there, go to small group up there and pretty much all of the friends we have in NM live in LA. I just wanted to give a quick update on what's going on (plan on continuing updating as we get more info) and post some pictures as some people have asked for them.

Background: Sunday, June 26th at 1pm the fire was started in the Jemez District of the Santa Fe National Forest approx. 3 miles south of Los Alamos. While the cause of the fire is still under investigation we have heard rumors that it was started either by a downed power line or possibly a residential fire. If we find out what started it, I'll post that. Unfortunately we have had very little rain fall since January (about 0.5 inches) so everything around Santa Fe/Los Alamos/White Rock is like a large tinder box. The fire started around 1pm and by 7pm had already burned about 4000+ acres. We headed up to LA that night to help friends pack up some things and/or haul stuff down to our place in Santa Fe. It was crazy seeing the fire by night, how eery it looked. Monday I got up and headed to work in Los Alamos, Jack was off because they closed the National Lab due to the proximity of the fire, by that time it was about 12 miles from Lab property. Driving up it looked like the fire hadn't gotten much bigger as far as the smoke cloud was concerned...boy was I wrong. Over night it had grown 10x bigger having burned over 40,000 acres! I wondered what would happen throughout the day at work and we were told to go about business as usual, reassure our patients they would be taken care of and that if an evacuation was necessary we would make sure they got out safely. By 12 noon we started smelling smoke throughout the building and by 1pm the orders for the hospital to evacuate came through. We were to send all of our patients to Santa Fe to be cared for in the local hospital there. Thankfully we started our evacuation early because there was a mandatory evacuation of the town of Los Alamos at 3pm, all residents were supposed to be out by 7pm. Before we even got the first patient out of the hospital the air conditioner was cut off because the hospital was starting to get hazy with smoke and breathing was becoming more difficult even for those of us with good lungs! I had to take the stairs a couple of times to help the ER evac some patients and came out coughing and sneezing each time. I got in touch with Jack and he and our good friend Dixon came up to check things out and to drive me home. We left by 3:15pm and took the back route out of town and thankfully everything went really smoothly to get out of town. We were back in Santa Fe by 4pm and calling to check on friends.

Today, Tuesday, June 28th - Today we have seen updates from a friend who decided to stay in Los Alamos to ride out the fire and try to protect some property up there that the fire was coming up the back side of Pajarito Ski Hill which is just above the town, supposedly the fire line was about a 1/2 mile from town. His most recent email read:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in our time of need.

Thus far the winds appear to be staying the course on direction and have not picked up too much. Temperature is about 85, so not as blistering hot as yesterday. Crews are working in Los Alamos Canyon just above the ice rink to thin out fuel and keep fire from entering town. I haven’t heard of any fires in town or the Lab. We’ve had fire trucks cruising our neighborhood every two hours since noon time, but I haven’t seen even evidence of fire (open flames) approaching, other than the thick smoke.

If the wind holds, maybe they will be able to start getting some containment. Still 0% contained as far as I know.

The view around 4pm from Santa Fe just behind our condo.

The sun was setting just behind the cloud and actually caused a pretty spectacular view.

This is us driving to Dixon's RV park to pick him up to head up to LA to help friends pack up.

While parked at Dixon's RV a huge piece of ash fell on the Flex. It broke up before I could get a good picture, originally it was the size of a big green bean.

Just had to add this because he's so cute :)

This was around 7pm...just a few hours after it started. We are still a good 18 miles from Los Alamos here at Dixon's RV.

The view driving down 502, passing Pojuaque High School, about 14 miles away from Los Alamos.

Even as we drove closer the size of the plume grew as the fire continued to spread.

This was the first view of actual flame as it crested the ridge and was heading toward lab property. Still about 10 miles away from LA.

This is right as you start up the curvy hill road up to Los Alamos, you can see a few people already evacuating at this time. It was still voluntary on Sunday night.

The flames were visible as we came into town, just passing the LA Airport in this shot.

This is near De Colores, a restaurant just on the outskirts of town.

The flames were visible from Trinity Dr. which is one of the 2 main drags through LA. The Lab is in the foreground.

Smoke plume from one of the intersections in LA.

Jack stayed late and took some shots, I rode home around 10pm with a pregnant friend who was a little nervous to evac by herself. Her husband is out of town for a conference this week. Talk about stressed out!

If you zoom in you can actually see the trees burning from top to bottom. The fire leaps from tall tree to tall tree.

I believe the lights in the foreground are Lab property lights.

This is a view of the police check point Jack and Dixon had to go through Monday afternoon to come up and meet me at the hospital.

A string of cars trying to get out LA after the mandatory evacuation was announced.

The helicopter pad at the hospital with smoke behind it...normally you could see towering mountains back there. Hospital to the right.

Me with some co-workers leaving work after successfully evacuating all of our patients. Shew.

The lab, covered in smoke. These are more so we can remember things in case it gets burned, praying it doesn't!!

Everybody heading out of town and off the hill.

As of right now, that's all we know so far, but as we receive updates I will post them on here. Please be praying for rain, for the fire fighters and for protection for the town and lab of Los Alamos. God is sovereign even through disasters such as this and we know that He is in control. We pray for His glory to be magnified through this situation. It has been a blessing to talk to friends from church as they deal with leaving their homes behind. Many have mentioned that this has been a great teaching moment for them to really step back and evaluate what they truly value in this life and to keep an eternal perspective in mind when deciding what is most important to them.