On the road between Interstate 25 and Cochiti Pueblo, the astounding breadth of the 140,000-acre Las Conchas Fire across the Jemez Mountains is easily visible. Plumes on the south end rise along the ridges above Cochiti Pueblo. The north end of the fire is beyond Santa Clara Pueblo, some 32 air miles away.

The fire involves a national nuclear research laboratory, a national preserve, a national monument, a national forest, three pueblos, several communities, and state and private land. Coralling it — while keeping more than 2,000 firefighters and support staff safe — requires some hotshot management skills.

Three Type I Incident Management Teams specializing in such complex events divided the Las Conchas Fire into zones last week.

The Type I team out of Arizona, commanded by Dugger Hughes, set up operations at the Cochiti Elementary School near Cochiti Reservoir. Hughes' team is responsible for managing the southern portion of the fire from the Bandelier National Monument to Cochiti Pueblo. Two other Type I teams are responsible for the northwest and northeast sections of the fire.

At the Cochiti school, the cafeteria became the central meeting room. The front office became a public information center. Classrooms boasted paper placards labeled for different specialties: logistics, fire behaviorist, meteorologist, air support, safety and more.

At 7 p.m. each evening, the specialists, division chiefs and government agency representatives have been meeting to discuss the day's events and the plan for the next day's firefighting tactics. Earlier meetings each day, in person and via cellphone and hand-held radios, help operations section chief Jason Clawson lay out the details on large dry-erase boards. A giant topography map on another wall shows the outlines of the fire's more than 400-square-mile perimeter.

The team's section of the fire is further broken into divisions responsible for fighting specific portions of terrain. Those are the "boots on the ground," part of the effort. Within each division could be hand crews, engines, water tenders, bulldozers and other resources. Every division has at least one medic. Each day, the teams receive instructions, such as making sure an archaeologist is with each bulldozer in Frijoles Canyon.

More than 50 people from all over the nation are responsible for coordinating equipment, food, water, medical help, financing, information, mapping and more for the firefighters on their portion of the fire.

At the evening meeting, they fill each other in on the day's work and prepare a detailed incident action plan.

On Tuesday night, the team's meteorologist trainee, Tom Clemmons, cited a gradual shift toward moister weather.

Safety officer trainee Louis Sandoval warned that the biggest risks to firefighters are unburned fuels, flooding — if the rains came — road conditions and a lot more snakes. "There's a lot of other critters coming out, too," he said. "They're kind of on the scared side, so watch out."

Thunderstorms could bring lightning, flash floods and outflow winds from the cloud column, which could create new spot fires beyond containment lines, the team was told.

Air operations director Pete Schwab said the sharing of aircraft between the north and south zones had been going well. A total of 18 helicopters were assigned to the fire Friday. Schwab said there is a daily reconnaissance of the fire from the air. "Light rain for the next two months is what we need to put this fire out," he said.

Every day, the team and front-line crews are trying to predict what the fire will do next. "Topography, weather and fuels (types of vegetation) drive fire behavior," Clawson said as he looked at the map of the Las Conchas Fire.

Clawson has been in fire management for two decades. His day job is zone assistant fire management officer in Prescott, Ariz. But like others on the Type I team, he doesn't get home much during fire season. "I haven't been to work in a month," he said.

Firefighters say every fire is different. So is every fire season. This one has made history in New Mexico. Two wildfires currently burning in the state are bigger than the 2003 fire that was, until now, the largest in the state's recorded history. "Where the start happens, what fuel it starts in, the weather, the time of day, all make a difference," Clawson said.

Fighting these wildfires successfully requires a lot of skill and a lot of talking. "Communication is critical," Clawson said.

By Wednesday, the team will finish in Cochiti and will be assigned elsewhere. Another team will take over.

Contact Staci Matlock at 986-3055 or smatlock@sfnewmexican.com.