A billow of black smoke signaled aerial ignition of hundreds of acres of Santa Fe National Forest land 8 miles south of Abiquiu Thursday morning.
La Sotella Prescribed Burn was started Wednesday with hand crews black lining about 400 acres. Helicopters ignited the land within the black line Thursday. The prescribed burn will eventually treat about 6,500 acres in the Española Ranger District.
The smoke was drifing north and east into Española. The Forest Service works with the state Environment Department's Air Quality Bureau to ensure the best possible conditions for smoke dispersal and to alert smoke-sensitive people.
The Soldier Fire northeast of Pecos, a 144-acre wildfire on private and national forest land, is 100 percent contained.
For more information about La Sotella burn and other prescribe and wild fires in New Mexico, see
www.nmfireinfo.com
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