Capitan Gap Fire
{{Short description|Wildfire in New Mexico, United States}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
File:Capitan gap.jpg Fire Engine 731.]]
The Capitan Gap Fire was a 17,000 acres (69 km2) human-caused forest fire that broke out in the Capitan Mountains range within Lincoln National Forest, in Lincoln County, eastern New Mexico in 1950: beginning on May 4.{{cite web| url=http://forestry.about.com/od/forestfire/ss/top_fires_na_10.htm| title=Capitan Gap Fire Disaster| accessdate=2013-08-02| archive-date=2013-10-18| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131018015531/http://forestry.about.com/od/forestfire/ss/top_fires_na_10.htm| url-status=dead}} It was named for Capitan Gap in the mountain range.
While a 24-man firefighting crew desperately dug firebreaks the wind shifted, and the fire jumped the line. The men buried themselves in the earth of a recent landslide, and survived the fire.
Smokey Bear
Also during the blaze, a bear cub who the men had previously seen ducking in and out of the forest survived the fire by climbing a tree and hanging onto the windward side with only singes and other survivable injuries. He was rescued by the firefighters and named Hotfoot, before filling the role of Smokey Bear.
Smokey Bear Vista Point overlooks some of the wildfire's site in Lincoln National Forest.
See also
- {{C|Wildfires in New Mexico}}
References
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{{coord missing|New Mexico}}
{{New Mexico wildfires}}
Category:1950 fires in the United States
Category:1950 disasters in the United States
Category:May 1950 in the United States
Category:20th-century wildfires in the United States
Category:Wildfires in New Mexico
Category:Lincoln National Forest
Category:History of Lincoln County, New Mexico
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