Las Conchas Fire Heads towards our town - Los Alamos

Well, if the Wallow Fire, Pacheco Fire, and Track fire were not enough, we had a fire start up just 12 miles southwest of us yesterday.  What started as a small fire, blew up out of control and within several hours had gone from 100 acres to 44 thousand acres overnight.

When they called for voluntary evacuations last night, we acted.  They called for mandatory evacuations this afternoon.  Luckily we were already in Albuquerque.  Here is my quick photo journal of our evac last night:

First look of fire when it started in the afternoon

Photo by Michael P. Young – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons.

Las Conchas smoke and sun as reflected off my iPhone behind me

Photo by Michael P. Young – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons.

Las Conchas Fire as seen from North Mesa Ballfields prior to us leaving.

Photo by Michael P. Young – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons.

Traffic leaving Los Alamos with smoke plums in the foreground

Photo by Michael P. Young – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons.

Ridge on Fire

Photo by Michael P. Young – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons.

Fire from the "other side" in Santo Domingo as we headed to Albuquerque

Photo by Michael P. Young – Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons.