Was the Hermits Peak Fire Avoidable? Paul Gleason Knew The Answer.

Lessons from the past.

“That ability to take in your surroundings and sort out the important stuff, to be aware, to be vigilant. Then take all that information, put it together, and see if it makes sense to you.” Paul Gleason

Legendary firefighter Paul Gleason could have taught us a thing or two about The Hermits Peak Fire. Gleason had a distinguished career including the Dalton Hotshots, running the Zigzag Hotshots, high level fire management positions, and had experience spanning many historic fires. In the Spring of 2000 Paul was on a prescribed burn in New Mexico. The burn was in the Jemez Mountains on Cerro Grande Peak. This is very close to where the Cerro Pelado fire is today.

Paul was initially assigned as a Fire Observer for the prescribed burn that turned into the Cerro Grande Fire. Ultimately the wildfire caused $1 billion in damages and burned over 43,000 acres. The escaped prescribed burn destroyed 235 homes and it burned into Los Alamos Labs causing immense problems. An unexpected wind event caused the prescribed burn to quickly turn into a wildfire that jumped pre constructed control lines.

Sound familiar?

The Hermits Peak Fire was initially a prescribed burn in New Mexico that escaped its containment due to a heavy wind event. Later, it was combined with the Calf Canyon Fire to be managed as a single incident. Today that fire is approaching 300,000 acres and is the largest fire in the Nation. The start date for the Hermits Peak Fire was early April 2022. The start date for the Cerro Grande Fire was early May, 2000. Gleason talked at length on being accountable for the decisions made during these types of operations no matter the outcome.

Lessons Learned

On May 4th a test fire was ignited for the prescribed burn Gleason was on.