Wildfire Preparedness & Prevention Resource Center

Southwest Wildfire Interactive Map  

Interactive map provided by Southwest Coordination Center helps track current wildifire incidents. For more information please click here.

Additional Resources 

Wildfire season is here, and now is the time to get ready. Learning about wildfire danger and being prepared can help reduce the threat of fires to our natural surroundings, our homes, and our communities. 

These helpful tips and resources aim to provide New Mexicans with the best information available to prepare for fire season.

Active Wildfire Information

Wildfire Preparedness

  • New Mexico Wildfire Information: List of helpful links to information for active fires, protection, prevention, and rehabilitation.
  • Firewise: Information on preparedness, defensible space around homes and communities, and online courses.
  • New Mexico Ready, Set, Go Wildfire Tips and Planning: Tips on how to create a defensible space and harden your home, prepare for emergencies, and what do in case of an emergency. 
  • American Red Cross Wildfire Preparedness: Tips on preparing for, responding to, and recovering after a fire for your home. 
  • After Wildfire: Guide and resource to help families and communities recover after a wildfire. The guide includes helpful tips on immediate safety, how to mobilze your community, who can help, post-fire treatments for land, and other additional resources. 

Wildfire Prevention

  • Prevention How-Tos: Information on how to prevent wildfires from campfires, debris burning, and equipment use. 
  • Practice Wildfire Safety: Prevention recommendations before, during, and after a fire. 
  • Know The Risk: Learn about fire restrictions and closures in all 33 New Mexico Counties or call 1-877-864-6985

For Businesses

Additional Resources And Contacts

Additional Safety Tips:

  • Do not use fireworks of any kind; 
  • Use caution and common sense before lighting any fire; 
  • Understand that any fire you create could become a wildfire;
  • Never, ever leave any fire unattended;
  • Properly extinguish and discard smoking materials; 
  • Be aware of your surroundings and careful when operating equipment including off road vehicles during perids of dry or hot weather;  
  • Speak up and step in when you see someone in danger of starting a wildfire; and
  • Be prepared for any emergency by putting together a disaster kit and family evacuation plan. 

Common ways you could unintentionally start a wildfire:

  • Unattended debris burning; 
  • Equipment fires such as from lawnmowers, ATVs, power equipment; 
  • Smoking; 
  • Unattended campfires; 
  • Children playing with matches or lighters; and
  • Fireworks.  

 

Latest

  • New Mexico senators ask National Guard to assess firefighting capabilities

    As firefighters across the West continue to battle what experts are describing as one of the most destructive wildfire seasons in recent memory, a group of U.S. senators, including Democrats Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, are trying to get a sense of how prepared the National Guard is to help combat large-scale blazes. Read More

  • As Firefighters Fight Luna Fire, Udall, Heinrich Request National Guard Wildfire Readiness Assessment

    WASHINGTON-U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined a group of 12 senators in a letter to Chief of the National Guard Bureau, General Daniel R. Hokanson requesting an assessment of the  National Guard's current firefighting capabilities to better coordinate resources with state and local efforts. The senators requested that the National Guard provide an assessment of trained personnel and equipment availability and work to develop coordinated regional planning with governors. Read More

  • In Key Hearing On Wildfire Management, Heinrich Questions Forest Service On COVID-19 Testing, PPE Resources

    WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) participated in a key Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on wildfire management in the midst of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The impacts of COVID-19, combined with high levels of drought throughout the West, will create unprecedented wildland firefighting challenges and may hurt numerous rural areas across the country, making the 2020 wildfire season potentially one of the most threatening seasons to date. Read More

  • Heinrich To Receive Briefing On Upcoming Fire Season And State Of Drought From National Weather Service

    ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - At 9 a.m. MT, on Friday, May 31, at the National Weather Service Center in Albuquerque, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, will visit the National Weather Service Center to receive a briefing from experts on their outlook for the upcoming fire season and the state of drought in the short-term and long-term in New Mexico.    Read More

  • As NM Prepares for Wildfire Season, Udall, Heinrich, & Colleagues Urge Trump Administration to Reverse Proposed Cuts to Wildfire Prevention, Firefighting Budget

    March 28, 2019) - Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, and U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee joined seven Western Senate colleagues in urging the Trump administration to reverse proposed funding cuts to critical wildfire prevention and forest restoration projects throughout the country.   Read More

  • Heinrich Passes Critical Bipartisan Legislation to Protect Sagebrush Habitat

    U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) announced the passage of the Sage-Grouse and Mule Deer Habitat Conservation and Restoration Act by unanimous consent in the Senate. He introduced the bipartisan legislation with U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to streamline scientifically-recognized vegetation management projects to conserve or restore the habitat of the sage-grouse and mule deer, and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. Read More

  • Udall, Heinrich, Luján Announce FEMA Fire Management Assistance Grant For Ute Park Fire

    Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and U.S. Congressman Ben Ray Luján announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has approved a request for a Fire Management Assistance Grant declaration for the Ute Park Fire burning in Colfax County. The Fire Management Assistance Grant Program allows for the "mitigation, management, and control" of fires burning on publicly or privately-owned forest or grasslands which threaten such destruction as would constitute a major disaster.   Read More

  • A major victory for forest communities

    Many of us in New Mexico are fortunate to have a national forest right outside our backyard. We rely on these forests for drinking water and firewood, to fill our freezers, and to support our outdoor recreation economy. However, as temperatures heat up and we enter fire season after a particularly dry winter, we are also acutely aware that some of our forests are still recovering from historic wildfires and that all of them face imminent threats of destructive fires. We know the weight of the loss these disasters carry. Read More

  • Commentary: A major victory for forest communities

    I am so pleased that Congress has finally passed a solution to a long-running problem in the way the U.S. Forest Service funds fighting wildfires. Until we passed this new law, wildfires in the West were not treated the same way in the federal budget as other natural disasters like tornados in the Great Plains, hurricanes on the Gulf Coast, and floods in the Midwest. That meant every time the costs of fighting fires exceeded the Forest Service's regular fire budget, the difference had to be made up by transferring funds from other forest thinning and restoration programs, a practice known as "fire borrowing." Read More

  • Heinrich Says Conservation Measures Will Grow NM Outdoor Recreation Economy, Improve Access To Public Lands

    U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, announced the passage of several conservation measures that he has championed to expand access to public lands and improve the health and resiliency of New Mexico's land, water, wildlife, and the communities that depend on them. The measures were included in the fiscal year 2018 omnibus funding bill, which passed the House and Senate and has been signed into law. Read More