Still have some fire action going on north of Signal Peak:

The blaze is being managed for wildland fire use, which basically means they’re letting it burn dry fuel that’s accumulated on the forest floor for the last decade or so. In 10 days its grown to about 3400 acres. It’s hard for the Forest Service to do a prescribed burn this close to town (though some area fire officials had previously expressed a desire to do just that) so this lightning-sparked fire is probably a good thing.

Fire personnel (177 of them!) have done some backburning – anticipating the fire’s movement and burning the fuel in its path – to control its spread, and they’re keeping the general area around the fire closed to the public. From everything I understand, this baby is definitely under control.

That said, this plume of smoke appeared out of nowhere Sunday afternoon at about 4:15. Not sure why, but I’ll make some phone calls. Check in with the Silver City Daily Press for more updates as we receive them.