New Mexico's record-setting wildfires deepen trend of devastating 'megafires'

Guardian: The first Shane Wolfe saw of the wildfire now raging through the New Mexico wilderness was from a helicopter – just as the firefighter was to lower himself down a rope to fight the flames. By the time Wolfe's crew rappelled in, a vast swathe of desert grasses, juniper, ponderosa pine and spruce fir was reduced to a moonscape. "It was all ash and grey and no more vitality left. No more colour left," he said. The fire tearing through the canyons and peaks of up to 10,000ft, covered 216,000 acres,...

URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/01/new-mexico-wildfires-devastating-megafires
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