The team fighting the 15,200-acre Frijoles Fire in the Pecos Wilderness announced Sunday that a crew member had died from a medical emergency.
A news release from the California incident command team overseeing fire suppression efforts described the person who died as an incident support crew member. Leaders said the crew member was transported to a local hospital due to an unspecified medical emergency and died despite the efforts of emergency medical responders.
“We are grieving alongside our fire family and will do everything we can to support those impacted,” Mike Page, the incident commander leading California Interagency Management Team 8, said in a statement. The team is overseeing Frijoles Fire suppression efforts. Page asked for privacy for the person’s family, as well as crew members.
Two other personnel have suffered unspecified injuries in fighting the blaze, internal reports show.
The announcement of the death comes as incident command reports that the fire’s growth has slowed over the last 48 hours and firefighters have achieved 45% containment. The blaze’s footprint has remained at roughly 15,200 acres since Saturday morning.
The lighting-caused wildfire has threatened structures and prompted evacuations in the Santa Fe National Forest since it first ignited Aug. 4, but the command team in charge of the fire has reported steady progress in recent days.
The internal report the team produced notes that the next 24 to 48 hours present the best opportunity over the next seven days to make significant progress on building containment lines, so long as the team has access to additional helicopters. If the helicopters arrive promptly, commanders wrote in a Monday morning situational report, crews have a 70% to 75% chance of containing the most prominent wildfire spread.
The fire has recently emitted large amounts of smoke that have prompted multiple state health advisories, though the forecast Monday predicts good air quality from Taos to Santa Fe and Española to Nambe.
Santa Fe National Forest officials on Sunday also announced that a new wildfire, the Osha Medio Fire, started near Pecos Canyon in the Pecos-Las Vegas Ranger District. The fire, which officials say may have started due to lightning, had reached approximately five acres as of Sunday morning, though it presents “moderate to high” potential for significant growth.
The national forest officials said they would share updates going forward on the Osha Medio Fire.
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