By ALLEN MCQUISTON
Jemez Insurance Agency
Serving Los Alamos Since 1963

You usually smell it before you see it. A sharp pine smell drifts in through a window. Or a smudge of smoke shows up over the Jemez that wasn’t there the day before. You step outside, look west toward the forest, and reach for your phone to find out where it’s coming from.

If you’ve lived on the hill for long, you don’t need to be told this matters. Los Alamos has watched fire come over the ridge before. The dry weeks of late spring and early summer, before the monsoon rains arrive in July, are when it happens here. Most years it stays in the mountains. Some years it doesn’t.

Here’s what’s easy to forget when the sky turns orange: almost everything that really protects you gets decided long before any smoke shows up. That’s true for your house, and for how calmly your family gets off the hill if the call ever comes. So here’s what’s worth doing now, while the day is still a normal one.

Where things stand this year

The winter didn’t help us much. We didn’t get a lot of snow, and we were already dry. Then a warm, windy spring pulled the moisture out of the forest early. The Santa Fe National Forest, which wraps around the hill, has had fire restrictions in place since early April, and they’re set to last through the end of September unless things change.

This town knows what a bad year can do. In May 2000, the Cerro Grande Fire, which started as a planned burn that got away in high wind, destroyed hundreds of homes and forced the whole town to evacuate for about a week. In 2011, the Las Conchas Fire came out of the Jemez and pushed everyone off the hill again. At the time, it was the largest wildfire in state history. Nobody here needs convincing that this is real. The question is just whether you’re ready.

What the fire restrictions mean

Stage 1 restrictions sound complicated, but they’re not. On national forest land, you can only have a campfire or charcoal grill in the metal rings at developed campgrounds. Not at a random spot, and not in a ring you build yourself. Propane and gas stoves with an on-off switch are fine. Just use them on bare ground, with three feet cleared all around. You can only smoke in your car, a building, or that same cleared spot. And fireworks are never allowed on federal land. No exceptions.

The fines are real, too. Breaking these rules is a federal crime that can cost thousands of dollars. The rules can also get stricter fast in a bad week. So check NM Fire Info (nmfireinfo.com) before you head up into the mountains.

The first five feet matter most

Here’s something most people get backward. In a wildfire, houses usually don’t burn because a wall of flame rolls over them. They burn because of embers. Embers are small, burning bits of bark and pine needle, and the wind can carry them a mile or more ahead of the fire. When they land on something that can catch, your house is at risk.

That’s why the most important space you own is the first five feet around your house. A weekend of work there helps more than almost anything else.

• Clean the pine needles and leaves out of your gutters, off your roof, and out of the corners where they pile up against the walls. Dry needles burn easily, and your roof is where embers land first.
• Move firewood, propane tanks, and anything else that burns away from the house. Thirty feet away is even better.
• Pull bark mulch back from the house, and put gravel or bare dirt against the walls instead. Skip the bushes right under your windows.
• Look underneath things. A deck, porch, or crawlspace full of boxes and dry leaves can trap embers. While you’re there, cover open vents with a fine metal screen.

If your house sits along a canyon rim or backs up to the forest, give that edge extra attention. Canyons funnel wind and embers, and that’s exactly how fire reached homes in town back in 2000. Keeping the brush down where your yard meets the wild matters even more there.

Want someone who does this for a living to walk your property? The Los Alamos Fire Department offers free home assessments, and you can schedule one online. They’ll point out the things you’d never think to look for.

How smoky is too smoky?

Even in a year without flames near town, smoke finds the hill. A fire well out in the Jemez can fill the canyons with haze and settle smoke into town overnight. And even when you can’t smell it, the air can still be bad for you.

New Mexico has a simple way to check, called the 5-3-1 method. Pick a few landmarks you know, like a Jemez peak, the Sangre de Cristos across the valley, or a mesa, that sit about five, three, and one mile away. Then look.

• If you can clearly see five miles out, the air is usually fine.
• If you can’t see five miles, young kids, anyone over 65, pregnant women, and people with asthma or heart or lung problems should take it easy outside.
• If you can’t see three miles, those same folks should stay indoors.
• If you can’t see even one mile, the air is bad for everyone, and everyone should stay in.

On a bad day, close up the house, run an air filter if you’ve got one, and hold off on anything that adds more smoke inside, like frying or lighting candles. The live map at fire.airnow.gov shows what’s blowing your way, and the local sensors in Los Alamos and White Rock can give you a closer read.

Know your way off the hill, and go early

This is where Los Alamos is different from most towns. There are only a couple of roads off the hill, and they’re busy on an ordinary morning. In an emergency, they fill up fast. In 2000, the whole town had to funnel down the mountain at once.

That’s why the smartest thing you can do is leave early, at the “Set” stage, not the “Go” stage. People who lived through Cerro Grande will tell you they watched the fire for days, and then everyone left at the same time. You don’t want to be deciding what to grab while the road is already backing up.

A few simple things make that day far less frightening:

• Sign up for the County’s emergency alerts. Los Alamos County switched to a new system, Everbridge, in early 2026, so even if you signed up for alerts before, you need to register again. It’s how evacuation orders and road information reach your phone.
• Pack a go-bag now and keep it by the door. Include your medicine, phone chargers, a few days of clothes, food, and a leash or carrier for your pets. Add your important papers, too. While you’re at it, take photos or a quick video of each room and your valuables. It takes 10 minutes, and it makes things much easier to sort out later.
• Have horses or other animals? Figure out now how you’ll move them and where they’ll go. That’s not a choice to make in a rush.
• Know both ways out, not just your usual one, and pick a spot to meet your family if you get separated.

One last thing

None of this means living afraid of the mountains. They’re a big part of why we’re here. And the town has done real work since 2000. Crews have thinned the forest around the edges, and the County and the lab changed how they prepare, and that work has helped in the fires since. But the part that protects your own house still comes down to you: your roof, your gutters, your first five feet, and a plan everyone at home actually knows.

Los Alamos has always looked out for its own. The best thing you can do this week is spend an hour on your house, sign up for those alerts, and talk the plan through over dinner. Then check whether your neighbor has done the same.