At 1 a.m. Monday, Cochiti Canyon and Dixon's Apple Orchard were expected to elude the north-burning Las Conchas Fire. But within minutes, the blaze leaped the ridge holding it back and headed for the orchard and the family that has maintained it for more than a half-century.

"It sounded like a jet coming over the mountain," Jim Mullane, co-operator of Dixon's Apple Orchard, said. He watched the flames burn a neighbor's cabin on the mountain before entering his canyon.

Jim's wife, Becky Mullane, the second generation of Dixons to run the orchard, packed some personal documents and pictures just as the trees behind their house ignited. The fire sucked in the valley air as it barreled down the narrow canyon. The family's life work was about to be engulfed by a monster that would go on to scorch more than 40,000 acres that night.

As the Mullanes drove away from the orchard, established by Becky's grandfather in 1944, embers from the growing fire flew above their heads, soaring about half-a-mile ahead of the fire.

The Dixon Apple Orchard has produced renowned apples, including its famous Champagne and Sparkling Burgundy varieties, and luckily, looks like it still might.

By 4:30 a.m., the Mullanes returned to their land to view the damage. The first things their headlights spotted through the smoke were rows of apple trees — safe. They saw their packing shed and machine shed — safe. Their apple bins — safe. Further up the road, a different story unfolded. Their house, their foreman's house and the housing for harvest workers were all burning.

"Our work is down there," Jim Mullane said Wednesday, fighting back tears as he pointed to the orchard. "But our life up here is over."

The foreman's house and the harvest workers' houses were destroyed. The Mullanes' own home is "questionable" after it sustained severe fire damage to one side. But the apple trees, for the most part, are still there. Only 300 of the orchard's 3,000 well-irrigated trees were burned.

They remain hopeful that they will still have a harvest this year, possibly by September, but a lot of questions haven't been answered. The land the orchard sits on is State Trust land that earns money for state schools, universities and hospitals. It was acquired as part of a land exchange between the New Mexico Land Office and The University of New Mexico. If the orchard is to harvest this year, it needs immediate help from state risk-management officials.

"This is a real tragedy for this family and for the whole state," Ray Powell, commissioner of public lands in New Mexico, said.

The Dixon Apple Orchard has been on lease to the Mullanes since the land trade in 2006. Powell says the entire state and local Cochiti Lake and Pueblo economies are affected by the orchard.

"If they lose the lease," Powell said, "the land is gone, and the economies are gone."

He has officially requested emergency help from New Mexico's insurer as well as from other organizations to facilitate the quickest rehabilitation possible. The Mullanes remain skeptical as to how fast help will come.

After the fire swept through their canyon and fizzled out where the canyon expands to the south, the Mullanes, along with a few friends and local volunteer firemen from Peña Blanca, fought the blaze for 50 hours. Once the structure fires were put out, those firemen reported to other areas of the Las Conchas Fire, leaving the Mullanes to fight spot fires on their property for the next two days.

Becky Mullane's father, Richard Dixon, 68, who lives in Minnesota, got the call from his son-in-law at 3:30 a.m. Monday morning and immediately flew in. On Wednesday, he worked on a tractor, cleaning up the blackness around the Mullanes' home.

Fire crews from Colorado, Nevada and Idaho arrived on their grounds Wednesday morning to clear the area of any remaining embers and possible start-up spot fires.

Outside the half-burnt house sat torched bedsprings, chairs, sinks and stove tops. Dixon said aluminum in some of the structures had melted.

Then, for the first time since the blaze, raindrops fell from the sky Wednesday afternoon, clinking off the blackened metal, disappearing into the dust.

Despite the welcome moisture, it also presents Jim Mullane with the next threat to the orchard: erosion. If they were to see an inch of rain, the creek behind their house could flood with black mud.

"There's nothing to hold it back," Jim Mullane said.

The Mullanes have experienced great generosity from friends who have provided them with water and food over the last two days. They said they aren't accepting donations right now because they wouldn't know where to put them. They humbly ask people just to buy their apples. All they can do now is wait for the state owners of the land to decide what to do.

The Mullanes say they aren't sure if this place will ever be the same. The 200-year-old ponderosas that were burned will take multiple generations to grow back. Luckily, there is another generation of Dixons and Mullanes in the wings who were visiting family in Minnesota when the fire began. Luke, 15, Cody, 13, and Natalie, 11, have grown up at the orchard and have all expressed interest in maintaining the storied land.

"They had plans to carry it on," their mother, Becky Mullane, said. "The next generation."

Contact Nico Roesler at 986-3084 or nroesler@sfnewmexican.com.