Pressure to meet objectives may have led the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico to ignore risks posed by a controlled burn that sparked the state's largest wildfire, an agency review found.
Increased prescribed fire goals from U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore and demands from local managers created "unrealistic expectations" and "acceptance of unforeseen risk" around the April 6 burn east of Santa Fe, the study said.
It quickly ran out of control, later merging with another blaze started by the USFS, torching 341,000 acres and destroying 432 homes in mountain communities. President Joe Biden's infrastructure act earmarked $3 billion toward reducing wildfire risk and quadrupled the area some USFS regions must burn and thin, the report said.
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