Fires New Mexico

The park superintendent who approved a prescribed burn that blew out of control and rolled through Los Alamos last month said Friday he will retire in July because of the controversy. Roy Weaver, 60, superintendent of Bandelier National Monument for nearly 10 years, has taken responsibility for the decision to start the burn on May 4. He said he believed conditions had been just right for the park's annual regimen of burning brush to stave off a potentially disastrous fire.

For a moment nothing appears to have changed. Coming up The Hill, the tidy town of Los Alamos begins to arrive. The slopes of the mesas stretch like knobby fingers into the red canyons. Just over the rise and the heart-stopping transformation is on display. Where were once lush stands of pines are now fields of black stubble, hills riot with the 5 o'clock shadow of wildfires. Gone are 37 million trees, 43,000 acres of forest.

More than two weeks after a hellish New Mexico wildfire burned 400 homes and closed the Los Alamos National Laboratory, concern is mounting over whether erosion caused by the fire will unleash toxic and radiological contaminants into the Rio Grande.

The park superintendent who approved a prescribed burn that blew out of control and rolled through Los Alamos last month said Friday he will retire in July because of the controversy. Roy Weaver, 60, superintendent of Bandelier National Monument for nearly 10 years, has taken responsibility for the decision to start the burn on May 4. He said he believed conditions had been just right for the park's annual regimen of burning brush to stave off a potentially disastrous fire.

Firefighters smothered a fast-moving wildfire that burned 7,500 acres in New Mexico, destroyed 32 buildings in one town and threatened three other communities in six days. The blaze began as a trash-barrel fire in San Cristobal, 15 miles north of Taos, then spread to neighboring La Lama, destroying 18 homes and 14 other buildings there, before moving into the Carson National Forest.

A suspect was arrested after an arson attack on an Albuquerque abortion clinic was videotaped by a hidden camera operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The surveillance camera is only one of "many audio and video" devices now in use at clinics around the country as an alternative to stationing federal marshals to protect the clinics, one official said. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno last July ordered U.S.

A fire in a transmission line knocked out electricity across much of New Mexico for more than an hour Saturday, snarling traffic in Albuquerque, shutting down radio and television stations and forcing the state high school basketball tournament to halt play. Candy Hurst, an adoption supervisor with the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, was in her downtown Albuquerque office building during the blackout.

For a moment nothing appears to have changed. Coming up The Hill, the tidy town of Los Alamos begins to arrive. The slopes of the mesas stretch like knobby fingers into the red canyons. Just over the rise and the heart-stopping transformation is on display. Where were once lush stands of pines are now fields of black stubble, hills riot with the 5 o'clock shadow of wildfires. Gone are 37 million trees, 43,000 acres of forest.

Two huge wildfires raged, with one straddling the Colorado-New Mexico border and threatening to consume several ranches, officials said. Four air tankers poured retardant on the flames as 650 firefighters rushed to build fire lines. Susan Haywood of the National Forest Service said in Santa Fe that emergency teams hoped to stop the fire in its tracks. The fire has spread across more than 9,000 acres of land, including 5,500 acres on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in northern New Mexico.

Made refugees by fire, hundreds of evacuated residents of Los Alamos solemnly returned Sunday in convoys of yellow school buses to the seared homes, blackened yards and still-smoking vistas of their abandoned town. The 7,000 people of neighboring White Rock, which was undamaged, were allowed to go home. The buses left Santa Fe for Los Alamos throughout the day, carrying counselors, clergy and 360 residents to the community of 18,000 that was emptied of life four days earlier.

More than two weeks after a hellish New Mexico wildfire burned 400 homes and closed the Los Alamos National Laboratory, concern is mounting over whether erosion caused by the fire will unleash toxic and radiological contaminants into the Rio Grande.

The thousands of people streaming back into fire-devastated Los Alamos on Tuesday found smoke still lingering in the air and most stores closed or without such staples as meat and vegetables. It was a city entirely different from the one they had left just six days before, when they fled ahead of a wall of flames that raced up the sides of canyons and left 405 families homeless. The Los Alamos nuclear weapon laboratory remained closed, and pockets of the town remained without gas or electricity.

Made refugees by fire, hundreds of evacuated residents of Los Alamos solemnly returned Sunday in convoys of yellow school buses to the seared homes, blackened yards and still-smoking vistas of their abandoned town. The 7,000 people of neighboring White Rock, which was undamaged, were allowed to go home. The buses left Santa Fe for Los Alamos throughout the day, carrying counselors, clergy and 360 residents to the community of 18,000 that was emptied of life four days earlier.

A fire in a transmission line knocked out electricity across much of New Mexico for more than an hour Saturday, snarling traffic in Albuquerque, shutting down radio and television stations and forcing the state high school basketball tournament to halt play. Candy Hurst, an adoption supervisor with the state Department of Children, Youth and Families, was in her downtown Albuquerque office building during the blackout.

Jim Fenwick, who resigned as Cal State Northridge football coach two years ago to become offensive coordinator at New Mexico, said Monday he has been told his contract will not be renewed. Fenwick, 47, left Northridge to join former UCLA defensive coordinator Rocky Long, the Lobos' coach. New Mexico was 4-7 and 3-9 in Fenwick's two seasons. Fenwick said he was never allowed to turn New Mexico's offense into his specialty, a no-huddle, run-and-shoot, spread attack.

Two huge wildfires raged, with one straddling the Colorado-New Mexico border and threatening to consume several ranches, officials said. Four air tankers poured retardant on the flames as 650 firefighters rushed to build fire lines. Susan Haywood of the National Forest Service said in Santa Fe that emergency teams hoped to stop the fire in its tracks. The fire has spread across more than 9,000 acres of land, including 5,500 acres on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in northern New Mexico.

The thousands of people streaming back into fire-devastated Los Alamos on Tuesday found smoke still lingering in the air and most stores closed or without such staples as meat and vegetables. It was a city entirely different from the one they had left just six days before, when they fled ahead of a wall of flames that raced up the sides of canyons and left 405 families homeless. The Los Alamos nuclear weapon laboratory remained closed, and pockets of the town remained without gas or electricity.

Jim Fenwick, who resigned as Cal State Northridge football coach two years ago to become offensive coordinator at New Mexico, said Monday he has been told his contract will not be renewed. Fenwick, 47, left Northridge to join former UCLA defensive coordinator Rocky Long, the Lobos' coach. New Mexico was 4-7 and 3-9 in Fenwick's two seasons. Fenwick said he was never allowed to turn New Mexico's offense into his specialty, a no-huddle, run-and-shoot, spread attack.

Firefighters smothered a fast-moving wildfire that burned 7,500 acres in New Mexico, destroyed 32 buildings in one town and threatened three other communities in six days. The blaze began as a trash-barrel fire in San Cristobal, 15 miles north of Taos, then spread to neighboring La Lama, destroying 18 homes and 14 other buildings there, before moving into the Carson National Forest.

A suspect was arrested after an arson attack on an Albuquerque abortion clinic was videotaped by a hidden camera operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. The surveillance camera is only one of "many audio and video" devices now in use at clinics around the country as an alternative to stationing federal marshals to protect the clinics, one official said. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno last July ordered U.S.