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A28 u.s. news
Diamars 31 mei 2022

New Mexico wildfire scar burn has forest officials worried

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) Reservation 14 miles (24 ki-
— As more than 3,000 lometers) southwest of Park-
firefighters in northern er, Arizona.
New Mexico continued Wind gusts of up to 30 mph
to battle the nation's larg- (48 kph) forced the evacu-
est active wildfire Sunday, ations of 15 homes on both
federal forest officials sides of the river Saturday
worried about future flash and pushed the 44% contain-
floods, landslides and de- ment figure back to 34%.
structive ash from the However, fire officials said
burn scar. the evacuees likely would be
allowed to return home by
The 7-week-old fire, the Sunday evening. The cause
largest in New Mexico histo- of the wildfire remained un-
ry, remained 50% contained der investigation.
after charring 492 square In Colorado, air tankers and
miles (1,274 square kilome- helicopters were helping
ters) in rugged terrain east of fight a new wildfire burning
Santa Fe.Two planned burns in the southern part of the
merged to form the massive state Sunday, the U.S. Forest
blaze at the southern tip of Service said.
the Rocky Mountains in the The fire, 18 miles (29 kilo-
Sangre de Cristo range. meters) west of Antonito,
One of the fires was previ- was reported Saturday in a
ously traced to April 6, when small subdivision along the
a planned burn set by U.S. Area Emergency Response ash flowing into rivers and "This fire has a lot of potential Conejos River and forced
Forest Service firefighters team has started publishing streams, according to Kiesow. left in it," said Carl Schwope, the evacuation of under 100
to clear out small trees and data from its post-fire assess- Many water treatment facili- incident commander for the people north of Colorado
brush was declared out of ments. ties aren't equipped for the southwest fire management 17, said Gregg Goodland, a
control. Micah Kiesow, team leader expensive, time-intensive team that has been fighting spokesperson for the Forest
On Friday, investigators said and a soil and watershed pro- process of filtering ash. Ex- the wildfire for the past 52 Service's Rio Grande Na-
they tracked the source of the gram manager with the Santa perts say ash and debris can days. tional Forest.
second fire to the remnants of Fe National Forest, said steep harm water quality with high Initial estimates show the The fire was estimated to
a planned January burn that mountain slopes had acted levels of nitrates and phos- fire has destroyed at least 330 have spread to 197 acres (80
lay dormant through several like a sponge before the fire. phorus. homes, but state officials ex- hectares) by Saturday eve-
snowstorms only to flare up "Post-fire in some of these A hazard assessment from pect the number of homes ning and did not grow sig-
again last month. areas, especially the high soil the Forest Service and U.S. and other structures that nificantly overnight, he said.
Firefighting costs already burn severity areas and the Geological Survey shows that have burned to rise to more People spending Memo-
surpass $132 million, climb- moderate, we're looking at some burned areas on the than 1,000 as more assess- rial Day weekend at a camp-
ing by $5 million a day, ac- now a steep slope that's more New Mexico fire could see ments are done. ground near the fire were
cording to authorities. like a parking lot," Kiesow heavy debris flows if they re- Elsewhere, 150 firefighters told to be prepared to evacu-
New Mexico Gov. Michelle told the Santa Fe New Mexi- ceive about .25 inches of rain continued to battle a wind- ate, he said.
Lujan Grisham already has can. in 15 minutes. driven fire that has burned The fire started on private
asked President Joe Biden to He said that could signal an Meanwhile, firefighters were more than 8 ½ square miles property but was mainly
direct the Federal Emergency "extreme change in water- hoping to make continued (22 square kilometers) of burning on Forest Service
Management Administration shed response" during mon- progress on the fire before grass, brush and salt cedar at land in a steep canyon in a
to pay for all costs related to soon season. the possible return of drier the Arizona-California bor- variety of conifer trees along
a broad range of recovery ef- Flooding presents another and warmer weather with der. with brush and aspen north
forts. problem for communi- stronger winds through The fire began Thursday on of the highway, he said. The
A Forest Service Burned ties near burn scars with Monday. the Colorado River Indian cause is under investigation.

Workers vote to become first unionized Starbucks in Alabama

at a downtown store voted complained about a lack of United States to unionize
27-1 to organize in a tally respect from management. late last year. Based in Seattle,
announced Thursday, news the company has more than
outlets reported. Documents Alex Buford, a Starbucks em- 34,000 stores worldwide.
show they would be repre- ployee for three years who
sented by Workers United if transferred to the store six
the vote stands. months ago, also cited racial
discrimination as a problem.
Company officials didn't
immediately respond to an "There's a lot of racial issues
email seeking comment on that we've been dealing with,
whether Starbucks would managers purposely cutting
challenge the vote — the lat- our hours, attacking us for
est in a series of wins for la- no reason," she told al.com.
bor at Starbucks stores across "A lot of us have complained
the nation. and the managers, they're just
not hearing us out, or they're
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. shop in Birmingham be- The employees had the back- not really listening to us, or
(AP) — Starbucks has un- came the first of the com- ing of Birmingham Mayor they say they're listening but
til later this week to file pany's locations in Ala- Randall Woodfin, who pub- they're not really listening."
any objections with the bama to vote to organize. licly expressed his solidarity
National Labor Relations with the workers. Employ- A Starbucks in Buffalo, New
Board after workers at a Baristas and other employees ees who supported the union York, became the first in the