Los Alamos Cerro Grande Fire - Maps
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Most people probably aren't familiar with New Mexico geography, especially the area around Los Alamos. The maps below start with the broad picture and zoom in to a detailed roadmap of the town. Click on the individual maps for a larger but slower view.
Northern New Mexico
Los Alamos is a county in Northern New Mexico. The county consists of two towns, Los Alamos and White Rock, and Los Alamos National Lab. About 80% of the county land is not owned by the county: it is Lab property, National Forest, and pueblo property. When most people say "Los Alamos," they are referring to the town.
The county is about 60 mile north of Albuquerque. There are no direct roads, so actual driving distance is about 100 miles. Santa Fe is about 25 miles southeast, but again driving distance is longer at about 35 miles.
Smoke from the Cerro Grande fire can be seen clearly from Albuquerque: it looks like a large thundercloud. The smoke also shows up on the Doppler weather radar and on satellite imagery. It stretches all the way from Los Alamos to the Colorado border near Raton and beyond (that's well over 90 miles as the crow flies). Pilots have reported smoke as high as 27,000+ feet.
Los Alamos National Lab
The county of Los Alamos pretty much exists for the National Lab, and in fact Lab land dominates the county. Total Lab area is 43 square miles, but much of that is open space.
The Lab is divided into Technical Areas, or TAs, shown as tan on the map. The thick black roads follow canyon bottoms; empty white space in between the major roads are usually mesa tops. In general, canyons and flat areas are heavily wooded; mesa tops are wooded to the west and become scrub-covered to the east.
The Lab is bordered by the Santa Fe National Forest to the west, Bandelier National Monument to the south, White Rock to the east, and Los Alamos to the north.
The Cerro Grande fire was started as a controlled burn to the south and west in Bandelier. It spread to the north and east, and was contained to the west side of NM 501 (labelled as Loop 4 on the map). It spread to town through the shallow end of Los Alamos Canyon (see next section) and over the top of the Pajarito Ski Area.
Spot fires have been reported in TA-16 (middle left on the map, southernmost site). This area has a high concentration of explosives, but there is little danger from them. The explosives require impact or an electrical charge to ignite; they would just burn from fire. Furthermore, they are contained in fireproof bunkers. There are also tritium facilities in TA-16, but these are even more rugged, being designed to withstand a direct crash of a 747 airplane.
Other areas with significant nuclear material include TA-18 and TA-55. These are sparsely wooded. TA-36 and TA-39 are explosives testing areas, and are very remote.
Los Alamos Geography
The county of Los Alamos sits on the Pajarito Plateau on the east side of the Jemez Mountains. The Jemez form the rim of a dormant volcano (technically it's dormant, even though the last eruption was 100,000 years ago).
The plateau is formed from compressed volcanic ash, called tuff (pronounced toof). Softer areas have been cut by erosion to form deep, steep-walled canyons. In general, the mesa tops have been developed, and the canyon bottoms left alone. Thus, most canyon bottoms are heavily overgrown and provide a fast-moving path for the fires.
I wrote an article a few years back about some pedestrian bridges built in Pueblo canyon. That article shows the type of growth in the canyons. This article also has a view of the ski area, which from what I have heard has completely burned.
The Jemez Mountains are covered by Ponderosa pine. These are tall trees (60-100 feet) that lose their lower branches. Under normal conditions, fires are contained to the undergrowth and don't spread to the trees. These are good fires. This time, though, the fire has crowned and is spreading through the tree tops.
The average elevation in Los Alamos is 7200 feet. The peaks of the Jemez to the west and north go up to about 9000 to 10,000 feet. White Rock, ten miles to the west of Los Alamos, is at about 6000 feet. The forest makes a gradual transition from Ponderosa pine to scrub pinon and juniper between Los Alamos and White Rock.
Los Alamos Town
The town of Los Alamos sits up against the pine forests, and in fact the pine trees extend into town. Residential areas extend from Diamond Drive to the west and north right up to the forests. The area formed by the Trinity Drive loop (middle left) is the Western Community. From North Road to the north and then east along Arizona and Woodland is the Northern Community. Quemezan Estates is a new development at Pipeline Road. Ponderosa Estates is a large development at the end of Range Road and behind Arizone.
North Mesa and Barranca Mesa are also large residential areas. The western end of Barrance Mesa is heavily wooded. As with the Lab, both mesas have a more scrub-like terrain towards the east. The eastern ends of the canyons are shallow, and in these areas the Ponderosas extend up the canyon walls to the mesa tops.
Parts of the main town, between Pueblo Canyon and Los Alamos Canyon, are wooded, especially those areas along the canyon edges. Finally, there two communities which extend on low mesa tops into Pueblo Canyon (Orange, Ridgeway, Walnut, Villa).
Most of the houses in the Western and Northern Communities are old, government-build single family detached homes, duplexes, and quads. These neighborhoods tend to be heavily wooded.
Most of the Orange Street area is Denver Steel construction, but there are more traditional houses on the canyon edges.
Ponderosa Estates consists of large, new house, mostly with stucco exteriors and tile roofs. Construction on Barranca and North Mesas is highly varied. They are relatively new homes (0-20 years), of varying styles. There is also a large mobile home development on North Mesa.
White Rock is a newer town, with the oldest houses being about 20 years. It is not as heavily forested as Los Alamos, and most of the forest is scrub evergreen.
Fire Path Through Town
As of Thursday afternoon, the fire seems to be spreading randomly by airborne embers. Earlier, though, the pace was a little more methodic.
From what I have been able to piece together from news reports, the first homes caught fire in the Western Community, near West Road and Diamond Drive. The fire then spread into the Trinity loop area, and destruction was widespread.
The fire may have skipped over the North Road area, but homes along the Arizona and Woodland part of the North Community are definitely burning. I used to live on Arizona on the forest side - from the last view I saw, it looked like some of my old neighbors had lost homes but our house was still standing. In fact, the north side of Arizona from 35th west seems to be a complete loss.
The fire has moved into Pueblo Canyon. I have not seen pictures of the Orange Street area, but there are many house fires near Urban Street, especially along the canyon edges.
Conflicting reports have come in that Ponderosa Estates is on fire, but the smoke is too thick for a definite report.
Barrance and North Mesas were originally thought to be safe because they are somewhat isolated from the forests. Helicopter pilots have recently reported, though, that they may be seeing flames through the thick smoke.
It looks like the only neighborhoods that have been spared thus far are those in the main town site. As I get more information, I will post it here.