{"id":208260,"date":"2026-03-17T13:17:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/208260\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T13:17:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T13:17:10","slug":"wildfire-experts-urge-preparedness-as-wildfire-season-begins-across-southwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/208260\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildfire experts urge preparedness as wildfire season begins across Southwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 Wildfire season is already beginning in many regions. In New Mexico<\/a>, the northern part of the state has already seen several fires, and in Texas, the Texas A&M Forest Service <\/a>said this could be the worst wildfire season since 2005.<\/p>\n

Now, the agency is reminding people to stay prepared, stay aware, and stay informed.<\/p>\n

The Sunland Park Fire Department has two trucks that they use to respond to wildland or brush fires.<\/p>\n

“This is one of my two brush trucks in the city. I have one in the south and one in the north \u2014 that way we can cover the city more quickly,\u201d Sunland Park Fire Department Chief Daniel Medrano said. “It comes out as a fan on both sides and we’re able to drive over a grass fire.”<\/p>\n

Medrano said the windy season here in the borderland starts now, which means an elevated fire risk.<\/p>\n

“As far as wildland fires or brush fires, we had about 15 or 16 last year. Most of them don’t pan out to what we would see on national media as far as a wildland fire or forest fire. Most of them are small brush fires in the area. We don’t really have a huge wildland problem here,\u201d Medrano said.<\/p>\n

So far, Sunland Park Fire has responded to three fires this year.<\/p>\n

But according to the National Interagency Fire Center Data, there have been close to 200 fires across New Mexico this year alone.<\/p>\n

“Down here in the south, we have less vegetation than places like Ruidoso or Cloudcroft or going up toward Albuquerque and Santa Fe. So, what we look at first and foremost are drought conditions,\u201d Medrano said.<\/p>\n

Across the Lone Star State, the Texas A&M Forest Service said the number of wildfires is already high this year. The month also saw the fourth-highest number of acres burned for any February in the agency\u2019s records.<\/p>\n

Nicholai Allen, a wildfire expert and active wildland firefighter, said March is projected to have above-average wildfire risk.<\/p>\n

“Coming out of the winter into the spring is the best time to do fire prevention prep,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n

Allen tells KFOX14 there are simple steps homeowners can take to protect their homes.<\/p>\n

“There are three steps that can help handle the number one reason for home loss in a wildfire \u2014 which is wind-borne embers that travel far ahead of the wildfire,\u201d Allen said. \u201cIf your vents are covered and there\u2019s no debris or dead vegetation stacked against the house like piles of firewood and your trees and brush are cleared, your home becomes much more defensible.”<\/p>\n

SAFE SOSS<\/a> was developed by Allen to help homeowners fight back with science, not fear. This three-step supplemental wildfire defense system gives you practical tools to help block embers, seal vulnerabilities, and defend your property before a wildfire ever arrives.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: Near record-breaking temperature in the Borderland<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up<\/a> to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 Wildfire season is already beginning in many regions. In New Mexico, the northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-208260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}