Osha fire rumbling freely in Sangres

PEÑASCO, N.M. (KRQE) - The Osha Fire sparked by a downed power line continues to grow in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains southeast of Taos.

Reported at 1,200 acres early Thursday, by late afternoon it had charred an estimated 1,500 acres.  At last report the fire was zero percent contained.

The fire reported shortly after noon Wednesday is burning through pine and aspen forest above Peñasco about 20 miles south of Taos.

As a sign of how serious the fire has become, a federal Type 1 management team is taking over operations at 6 p.m. Thursday. That means more specialized crews are needed to battle the blaze tucked into rugged canyons.

So far the evacuations here have been limited to the Fa Yun Prajna Buddhist monastery where 32 people left on Wednesday as a protective crew of firefighters stayed behind.

While New Mexico State Forestry reported structures are threatened by the fire, none has burned. There also have not been any reports of injuries.

The air attack began early Thursday with at least four air tankers and several helicopters hitting hard from above.

In all, more than 200 people are fighting the fire.

The weather is a big challenge. The humidity is much lower than yesterday, and the wind hasn't helped either. After a cool and relatively calm night, Thursday afternoon saw gusts of at 30-40 mph and possibly higher fanning the flames.

And the location of the fire hasn't helped firefighters at all.

"The rugged, steep terrain that they're having to work in," Doretta Martinez of the Carson National Forest said. "So when you have that kind of terrain, especially as overgrown as it is in this area, it's going to make fighting the fire very difficult."

There is no rain in the forecast, but cloud cover has helped keep temperatures down and humidity up.

All forest roads along State Road 518 from Taos to Rock Wall are closed, and SR 518 itself is closed from Rock Wall to Las Mochas.