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The Chavez-Jaramillo Fire
Las Nutrias, New Mexico
April 1, 2002

Newspaper article reporting our house as having burned

Following is the sequence of events in Las Nutrias, New Mexico, regarding the Chavez-Jaramillo Fire that occurred on Monday, April 01, 2002, county of Socorro, New Mexico. Our home is located on the east side of the Rio Grande and is about as close to the Rio Grande River as legally possible.

The following times are approximate.

1145 Rachelle notices smoke rising directly due west of our property and west of the Lower San Juan drainage canal which is located between the Barnette residence and the Rio Grande River. Rachelle mentions this to her husband, Daniel. At this time, it was unknown just how far west the smoke originated. Barnettes have no indication of any immediate danger at this point.

1225 Taylor, outside the home, notices the same column of smoke seen earlier. He crosses the said drainage canal and walks due west through the bosque to the east bank of the Rio Grande River. At this time, thick smoke was observed on the west side of the river. Rio Grande river is almost dry. Taylor thinks the fire might be dangerous enough, due to the almost dry riverbed, to come home and mention this to parents Daniel and Rachelle.

1230 Daniel goes outside to observe smoke and fire at request of wife, Rachelle. Column of smoke is seen rising but appears to be on west side of river. Still no indication of immediate danger and fire does not appear to be a threat, especially since smoke column appears to be rising almost vertically.

1417 From his bedroom, Taylor notices sunlight in room becoming significantly darker. He looks out door and sees thick, black smoke.

1420 Smoke increases considerably and Rachelle requests Daniel to check on the fire. Smoke is of concern at this point. Daniel and son, Taylor, wade across Lower San Juan Canal and climb up the embankment to a road maintained by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District. Heavy smoke is rising and heading northward. Daniel and Taylor can hear a low roaring sound, similar to a passenger jet flying high overhead. Flames are then seen through the trees on the east side of the Rio Grande in the bosque, directly due west of Barnette residence. Daniel places call via Sprint cell phone (phone records will show exact time) to Abeytas Fire Department to inform them that it appears fire has jumped the river. The woman who answers the phone replies that the fire has jumped the river and that fire crews are on their way as quickly as possible to the east side of the river. The northward smoke column begins shifting southward, indicating a change in wind direction. Son Trevor joins Daniel and Taylor on ditch bank road to observe conditions.

1450 Daniel, Taylor, and Trevor return home, but Daniel returns one more time to the Lower San Juan to check the condition of the fire. Thick smoke prevents seeing the fire directly, but the sound of crackling wood and the low roaring sound indicates the fire is spreading very quickly. Smoke column is observed to be heading southeastward from the river.

1500 Daniel returns to residence to find Rachelle and Taylor talking to a male and a female (Marie?) firefighter from what Daniel recalls as the Abeytas Fire Department. Both firefighters are very concerned about Barnette family’s location. At this time, the bosque fire is observed by the two firefighters and the Barnettes to jump the Lower San Juan drainage canal and to begin igniting timber several hundred yards southwest of Barnette residence. Female firefighter says that the fire is too close and tells Barnettes to evacuate immediately. The firefighters immediately leave as Daniel and Rachelle alert family members to grab a few things in preparation for evacuation. Via Sprint cell phone, Rachelle calls family friend Mrs. Ginger Ober to relay we were told to evacuate (phone records will show exact times of calls). Landline for home phone number stops working.

1515 Daniel, Rachelle, and family leave in car in easterly direction. Fire spots have broken out on property next to road probably due to airborne embers.

1525 From the intersection of the Upper San Juan irrigation canal and Las Nutrias Road, Barnette family observes fire burning surrounding area. Shortly after, due to incoming heavy equipment and fire trucks, Barnettes move farther eastward to Chihuahua Bible Chapel located on the eastern mesa. Winds are observed to shift from south to northward direction again. The fire appears to split, with one part continuing to burn southward and the other, northward. Fire is observed to completely encircle area of home.

We returned to the property on Tuesday, April 2, 2002, to look around. Here are a few pictures of what we found.

The fire came within 5-6 feet of our pump house. You are not looking at shadows here (there is not much left to cast a shadow) but charred ground where the fire burned.

Kind of a weird fire. It jumped the Rio Grande River at a place about 1/4 mile wide, it jumped a 50-yd wide drainage canal, and it could not even jump 5 ft to burn down our shed. Notice the red slurry on the shed front.

Several cargo planes slurried our property with their familiar red-colored dust. The slurry hit our basketball goal with what has to be the winning basket. We give him 3 points -- he was definitely behind mid-court!

Several logs laid here. We had used them as a backstop for target practice. Notice the yellow steel gopher lying on the ground near the ashes.

Charred. Everything charred. The entire area around our home looks like this. Many old cottonwood trees (not pictured here) nearly 100 years old will soon be turning to dust. All stand in testimony to the heat of the fire that passed through this area.

I would say 15 ft from the house is close enough for any fire to come. Travis stands at the edge of where flames died out. Fire attacked from all directions.

Three dog igloos once resided within this dog run. All three caught fire and melted. The remains of one are still visible. Dog run is located about 20 ft from the home. Notice the smoldering log in the background directly behind the dog run. In another area, logs that had been piled up with a dirt covering smoldered for 2 weeks after the fire. The patch of green in the foreground is the ONLY green for long way in any direction.

Yes, cleanup is a mess. Looks like Taylor grew a mustache. Ha.

Trusty Buck knife by his side.

Really don't think he minds the soot. Takes pride in dirt; wants to live in a mud hut for awhile. I think his brain might be made of mud!

I have never seen Shelly this dirty. It got worse as the day wore on.

Really think she DOES mind the dirt.

"San Francisco was never like this! Darn Texan men should never be allowed in California! Sure wish I had some New Mexican green chiles!"

Good thing Trevor had this hose. Otherwise, the fire would have NEVER been extinguished! Sunglasses as dark as the soot. Wait ... maybe that is soot!

Notice cottonwood tree in background. All trees that have the gray burn around the base will be lost due to the high heat cooking the inner layer just under the bark.

Summary and Our Thanks

Our family was evacuated from our home in the afternoon of Monday, April 1, 2002, due to the Chavez and Jaramillo fire which burned along the Rio Grande bosque in the Las Nutrias and Veguita, New Mexico, townships. At the time we evacuated, we were sure most every physical possession of ours would succumb to the horrendous fire quickly spreading through the area. Thanks to the grace and mercy of Almighty God and his only Son, Jesus Christ, and to the efforts of numerous firefighters, slurry bombers, the forestry service, police officers, the American Red Cross, Mesa Vista Animal Clinic in Belen (for boarding our two dogs), and we are sure many more, we were able to return to our intact and unburned residence on Wednesday, April 3, 2002. Numerous people, including neighbors, firefighters, helicopter news crews who filmed the flames next to our home, Socorro County Sheriff officers, and the on-scene fire marshal initially believed our residence was burning, or had burned, to the ground. One of the slurry bomber pilots obviously thought our home was near destruction as the crew dropped its load along flames fast approaching within 100 feet on the west side of our home. Flames came to within 15 feet from the south side of our home as observed afterwards from scorched trees and burnt grass. On the north side of our home is a pump house for our well. Flames came to within 5 feet of this shed. All of this, and yet not even scorch marks are observed on the home or its roof. Even the vinyl skirting around the base of our manufactured home shows no signs of damage. Yet, three unoccupied dog igloos within 15 feet of the east side of our home burned and melted from the fire and heat. All of this can be verified with pictures that we took the day after the fire. No one, not fire crew, neighbor, forestry service, or fire marshal, all of whom have visited the site the day after the fire, has believed that our home is still standing until they saw it for themselves.

A more amusing side of this story can now be told. We have a basketball goal on the west side of our home standing in what used to be a small open area of our land. It stood directly in the flight path and is now covered in the orange slurry now so familiar to New Mexicans either from TV or personal experience. Some day we would like to thank the bomber crew for their perfect aim, and award them their well deserved 3-points for getting it right through the hoop from a location inarguably behind mid-court.

To all of those mentioned above, and to all of those people behind the scenes who know to prepare for emergencies such as this, every single one of you makes a difference, and may God bless you all in some way. We owe you a debt we can never repay.

THE END