Firefighters are currently battling the Signal Fire in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico. The fire was reported by the Signal Peak Lookout Tower Sunday (May 11) in the afternoon and is located approximately 15 miles north of Silver City. It is currently estimated to be 4,700 acres. The Southwest Area Incident Management Team assumed command of the fire Monday at 6:00 p.m. The cause of the fire is thought to be human either a careless camper or arson, but the investigation is still ongoing. Residents in the vicinity of Signal Peak have evacuated. The firefighters are employing full supression tactics in order to contain the fire as rapidly as possible.
Resources assigned to the fire include:
NASA's Aqua satellite collected this natural-color image with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, MODIS, instrument on May 13, 2014. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS's thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner with information from Inciweb.org and KFOX14.