UPDATE: The Las Conchas Fire that started on June 26, has since burned 127,821 acres and is so far 27 percent contained.

A reported 63 residences have been destroyed in Cochiti Mesa and the Las Conchas area from the blaze.

The fire reported near Santa Fe on Monday evening has been fully contained. Officials are monitoring the site, said Andrea Pruitt, a spokeswoman for the Santa Fe National Forest.

Pruitt said area residents are reporting black smoke in the area. That visual is from heavy logs burning inside the containment area, she said.

“They do have a containment line around a majority of the fire, so that is what people are seeing,” she said.

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Helicopters dropped water on a new wildfire that broke out Monday west of Santa Fe as hotshots and hand crews continued to work on the Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains.

The Las Conchas Fire has swept through about 123,563 acres, according to reports from the U.S. Forest Service. Late Monday, officials said the fire was about 27 percent contained and was moving mostly north and west. The fire, which grew rapidly in its early days, had slowed — moving only 2,300 acres since the Sunday report.

Firefighters anticipated what they call "extreme fire behavior" in Santa Clara Canyon and reported that it had pushed toward the north slope of Chicoma Peak on Santa Clara Pueblo lands, but pueblo spokesman Joe Baca said late Monday that fire lines appeared to be holding on the eastern edge of the fire.

Still, the blaze has been devastating there, he said. About 14,400 acres of forested land on the reservation has been damaged in some respect by the fire, an area that comprises about 80 percent of the pueblo's forest.

"Probably the forest will not be the same in our lifetime," Baca said, but noted that restoration efforts are already being planned in conjunction with federal officials.

While some large stands of timber have burned, other areas experienced only ground-level fires, he said, and others have islands of green.

Ed Markely, a U.S. congressman from Massachusetts in charge of the House Committee on Natural Resources, announced via email early Monday that fire had reached the Puye Cliff Dwellings site at Santa Clara and had burned homes there, but Baca said that report was incorrect. The fire got no closer than six miles to the cultural site and had not neared any homes, he said.

Officials also said Monday that some areas of the Valles Caldera National Preserve on the northwest edge of the fire are still in danger, but that burnout operations conducted Sunday there were successful.

About 2,200 firefighters are committed to the fire, and managers mobilized a third incident team at a base camp in Cuba on Monday for easier access to transportation routes and Internet service than its base camp at Cochiti.

The Las Conchas Fire prompted the forced evacuation of Los Alamos residents, who were allowed to return home Sunday. Los Alamos National Laboratory, closed to most workers for more than a week, plans to reopen Wednesday. Lab Director Charles McMillan issued a statement early Sunday that the lab appears to have escaped serious damage from the fire.

Today, residents of Cochiti Mesa will be escorted onto their property to survey damage there, which included the destruction of more than 40 homes during the first hours of the blaze. Government vehicles will drive people to homes that can be accessed off N.M. 4, then back out of the Sandoval County fire area, which is still classified as hazardous, according to official reports.

Even though monsoonal weather patterns emerged in the region during the last couple of days, reports indicate little rain has fallen in the Las Conchas Fire area, and fuels remain dry.

The Cerrita Fire, meanwhile, was reported around 11:15 a.m. Monday on U.S. Forest Service land in the Caja del Rio area. In addition to the air support, two crews of Carson National Forest Hotshots and other firefighters continued attacking the six-acre blaze Monday night.

Andrea Pruitt, a spokeswoman for the Santa Fe National Forest, said the blaze was 15 percent contained and was getting additional helicopter water deliveries from the Rio Grande.

"It's holding," Pruitt said.

She said fire was burning about 4.5 miles northwest of the Santa Fe Municipal Airport at about 8 p.m. Monday.

While the Las Conchas Fire reportedly began on June 26 when wind knocked an Aspen tree into a power line, the cause of the new Cerrita Fire remained unknown at press time.

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.