Hummingbird Fire shifts to transition phase, access limits remain in Gila National Forest

A fire can move into transition and still wreck a trip. In the Gila, the Hummingbird Fire reached that stage on May 6, but travelers heading for southwest New Mexico still faced smoke, road crews, closures, and a long list of places they could not reach.

The Gila Las Cruces Type 3 Incident Management Team said its May 6 update would be the last daily briefing before responsibility shifted back to the local unit on May 7. The fire stood at 5,650 acres and 60% containment, and a smaller Type 4 organization was set to remain on scene. Even with the handoff, the update warned that fire equipment and apparatus would still be on roadways while work continued inside the footprint.

That matters most around Bursum Road and Bearwallow Road, where crews were still mulching debris and removing hazards to build indirect contingency lines. Smoke was expected to stay light, but it could still be seen from Willow Creek Subdivision, Gila Cliff Dwellings, Gila Cliff-Valley, Truth or Consequences, and Silver City. The Willow Creek Subdivision remained under Level 2 SET, Stage 1 fire restrictions were still in effect, and a temporary flight restriction stayed in place over the fire area.

The closure order also remained broad. Trails and sites around Willow Creek stayed closed to the public, including Middle Fork Trail 157, Loco Mountain Trail 143, Clayton Mesa Trail 175, Lilley Park Trail 164, West Fork Trail 151, Crest Trail 182, Whitewater Baldy Trail 172, Ben Lilly Campground, Willow Creek Campground, Willow Creek 151 Trailhead, Iron Creek Mesa Trail 171, and Cooper Trail 141. For hikers and backpackers who use the Gila River corridor as a springboard into the backcountry, that meant no normal backdoor access yet.

The fire began after thunderstorms moved through the forest on April 20, when Black Mountain lookout spotted the first smoke around 4:45 p.m. south of Willow Creek in the Gila Wilderness. It was lightning-caused and, when found the next morning, was only about a quarter-acre. It then climbed from 25 acres on April 24 to 4,364 acres by April 30, then 5,298 acres on May 1 before holding at 5,650 acres through the final update. Personnel levels also slid from 246 on May 1 to 193 on May 6 as containment improved.

The blaze burned through dense brush, dead and down fuels, and standing dead trees in the 2012 Whitewater-Baldy Fire burn scar. That old scar helped shape the fight and the travel impact now, because the same landscape that once fed New Mexico’s largest wildfire, 297,845 acres in 2012, is still steering where crews can work and where visitors can go.