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Fire crews fully contained the 525-acre El Valle Fire by the end of their shift Sunday evening. They will continue to maintain a presence in the area to patrol and mop-up interior heat before calling it controlled and out. Suppression repair activities will also continue. 

Fire crews, including from local fire departments, increased containment on the 525-acre El Valle Fire to 88% today. Crews have also been focusing on suppression repair activities, such as fixing fences, building waterbars along handlines, grading roads and rehabilitating culverts.   Forest Road 207 in El Valle has reopened, but Forest Road 714 will remain closed. 

Fire crews, including from local fire departments, continued to increase containment on the 525-acre El Valle Fire, reaching 83% today. Earlier, the Taos County Sheriff lifted all evacuation statuses at 10:30 a.m.  Rain across the area has aided crews in their efforts with firefighters reporting ground saturation up to a half foot down into the soil. The remote automatic weather station in nearby Truchas, N.M., recorded 1.58” of rain in the last 72 hours, and more rain is forecasted. 

Crews were back on scene today to continue increasing containment, which is now at 58%. Fire behavior has been minimal, but residual heat and isolated smoke were found throughout the burn area. Rainfall did occur in the later afternoon with no observations of flooding. With minimal fire behavior, fire personnel were able to walk and measure the perimeter, finding the fire’s actual size to be 525 acres, a four-acre difference from when measured by air this weekend.

Fire crews continued progress on the 521-acre El Valle Fire today, increasing containment to 32%. Continued work to strengthen lines and a change in weather prompted the Taos County Sheriff’s Department to lift all “Go” evacuations starting at 6:30 p.m., moving El Valle and Las Trampas to a “Set” status, using the Ready, Set, Go! system.  The full list of evacuation statuses is: 

With favorable weather and light fire behavior, fire crews and air resources continued suppression actions on the El Valle Fire today by nearly lining the entire 521-acre burn area, which was mapped earlier this morning by an infrared flight. Containment, however, will remain at 0% as crews have not begun to secure and mop up the line. 

An infrared flight took place this morning at 9:45, finding the size at 521 acres. Containment remains at 0%. The map shows the 521-acre burn area. Green shading is National Forest land (341 acres) and brown shading shows non-Forest Service lands (181 acres).

TAOS, N.M., Sep. 8, 2023 - Carson National Forest fire crews and local fire departments are taking suppression actions on the 100-acre El Valle Fire on Carson National Forest. It is located in the vicinity of the communities of El Valle and Las Trampas.

Fire crews this morning are continuing to take suppression actions and make good progress on the El Valle Fire, which is located near the communities of El Valle and Las Trampas between Forest Service roads 207 and 714. The estimated size remains between 200 and 400 acres with no containment. An overnight infrared flight to more accurately measure the fire’s size was not able to occur. 

9:00 p.m., Sep. 8, 2023—Carson National Forest fire crews and local fire departments this afternoon continued to take suppression actions on the El Valle Fire, near the community of El Valle, N.M. The fire is estimated to be 200-400 acres. More accurate acreage may be available in the morning after a planned infrared flight this evening or early morning.