{"id":39622,"date":"2022-07-04T19:13:27","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T01:13:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lightning-triggers-wildfire-in-la-plata-mountains\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:50:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:50:45","slug":"lightning-triggers-wildfire-in-la-plata-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lightning-triggers-wildfire-in-la-plata-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning triggers wildfire in La Plata Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mesa
Mesa Verde Helitack used short-hauling technique to drop off and pick up firefighters working a fire in the La Plata Mountains Saturday. (Courtesy San Juan National Forest)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The San Juan National Forest teamed up with Mesa Verde National Park Helitack to contain a wildfire fire Saturday morning in the La Plata Mountains.<\/p>\n

The Max Fire burned a tenth of an acre in a remote area with dense vegetation, according to a National Forest post on Facebook. It was started by lightning.<\/p>\n

The strategy to fight the fire was notable in that it was the first approved helicopter short-haul operation for a wildfire on U.S. Forest Service land, according to the agency.<\/p>\n

In a short-haul operation, a helicopter carries personnel and their gear at the end of a fixed line that hangs under the helicopter\u2019s belly.<\/p>\n

The technique is used best in a remote, densely vegetated area where a helicopter can\u2019t land, such as rugged or forested terrain.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Mesa Verde helicopter crew prepares for a short-haul operation that delivered firefighters to a wildfire burning in a remote area of the La Plata Mountains. (Courtesy San Juan National Forest)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mesa
Mesa Verde Helitack used a short-haul technique to transport firefighters to and from a wildfire in the La Plata Mountains Saturday. It was the Forest Service\u2019s first short-haul operation since it was approved in 2021. (Courtesy San Juan National Forest)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Firefighters
Firefighters responding to a wildfire in the La Plata Mountains were lowered by a helicopter to the remote area. The lightning-caused fire was contained. (Courtesy San Juan National Forest)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

While short-haul operations have been used in medical evacuations for years, they were approved for wildfire operations on Forest Service lands in 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cForest management deemed short haul the best tool for the job when assessing the remote fire burning in the La Plata Mountains,\u201d the Facebook post said.<\/p>\n

The Max Fire was not near roads or a desirable landing zone for a helicopter, making short haul the best operational candidate.<\/p>\n

A fire crew was inserted and quickly contained the Max Fire, which then received rain from Saturday\u2019s thunderstorms.<\/p>\n

The firefighters were extracted using the same method.<\/p>\n

Short-haul operations are a specialty of Mesa Verde Helitack, an eight-person firefighting and rescue crew based at Mesa Verde National Park.<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

contained using technique recently approved by National Forest Service<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,199,84],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-national-forest","tag-wildfire"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84389,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39622\/revisions\/84389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39622"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}