Senators speak out on Little Bear Fire

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - New Mexico’s two senators put the Little Bear Fire into greater perspective.

Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall toured the fire zone before a press conference Sunday in Albuquerque.

With 242 homes lost, the senators say the Little Bear Fire has edged out the Cerro Grande Fire that hit Los Alamos in the year 2000.

“This is our biggest fire in terms of property loss…my heart goes out to them, to their loved ones and I just feel very strongly about their losses,” Udall said.

The Little Bear Fire near Ruidoso is 60 percent contained and has burned almost 40,000 acres.

The senators toured the fire zone Sunday with U.S. agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack and U.S. forest service Chief Tom Tidwell.

Vilsack said that the fires burning in New Mexico are among 24,000 fires that have popped up so far this year across the country.

He says it's important to reassure the people of New Mexico.

“Despite the loss of property, which as the senators have indicated was significant, we are fortunate that no lives were lost and that is to some degree a measure of success,” Vilsack said.

Secretary Vilsack also announced Sunday that the federal government is working on ways to help those living in and around the fire zone, to prepare for the threat of flash flooding.

He also says the cost of fighting the Little Bear Fire and the Whitewater-Baldy Complex Fire in the Gila Wilderness is expected to reach $50 million.