Big Spring Fire Explodes
by John Weckerle
People traveling through the Estancia Valley were met yesterday with the sight of a huge plume of smoke rising from the Manzano Mountains, the result of an expansion of the Big Spring Fire. The fire, according to this Albuquerque Journal article, has grown to 3,000 acres and is being exacerbated not by wind – as with the Trigo fire – but by dense, dry fuel (the effects of tree density are also discussed in this Mountain View Telegraph article). The article states that two public meetings will be held today: one at the Estancia Community Center at 2 p.m., and one at the Torreon Community Center at 6:30 p.m. An evacuation center has been set up at the Estancia Community Center.