A month after its outbreak, the Hermits Peak Fire is only 20% contained in the western United States.
A gigantic fire, contained to only 20% a month after its outbreak, continued to ravage the American state of New Mexico on Friday, plagued like all of the western United States by a chronic drought which has further worsened this week.
Baptized “Hermits Peak Fire” by relief, this fire has already covered some 670 square kilometers of brush and forest and destroyed about 170 homes.
Several thousand other buildings are potentially threatened in the coming days by this disaster: a preventive fire organized on April 6 but which had gotten out of control due to high winds and extreme drought conditions in the area, according to the authorities. .
While the fire season is just beginning in the American West, New Mexico has already seen some 1,200 square kilometers of vegetation go up in smoke, more than the average for an entire year.
Seven fires in total, including one that killed two people last month, currently roam this state affected by a historic drought which facilitates any outbreak of fire in the moor.
In response to the gravity of the situation, US President Joe Biden has declared a state of natural disaster in New Mexico, which will therefore be able to benefit from numerous federal aid, both logistical and financial.
Wildfires are common in the western United States but have become increasingly intense due to global warming caused by human activities, including fossil fuels, which is worsening an already chronic drought.
In particular, it threatens the water supply of part of the population and has caused the level of lakes and rivers to drop dramatically.
Situation even more worrying in the Colorado Basin
All the reservoirs show a level well below normal in the western states, with the exception of that of Washington, underlines the weekly bulletin devoted to the drought in the United States.
“In California, the two largest reservoirs in the state are at a dramatically low level at the start of the dry season”, respectively 40% for Lake Shasta and 55% for Lake Oroville.
The situation was even more worrying in the Colorado Basin, which provides water supplies to tens of millions of people.
According to the drought bulletin, Lake Powell was this week at only 24% of its capacity and Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States, at 31%.
Attached to the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead has reached its lowest level since 1937, to the point that a metal drum containing the body of a person killed in the 1980s was discovered on the dry shore.
According to a study published in 2020 by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the flow of the Colorado has dropped by an average of 20% over the past century, and at least half of this drop can be attributed to rising temperatures in the region. area.
In California, average temperatures during the summer are thus 1.6°C higher than their level at the end of the 19th century.