Los Alamos Historical Society News:
The Los Alamos Historical Society has announced its upcoming lecture, a free event 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, May 13 in the Pajarito Room at Fuller Lodge. Author Tom Ribe will speak on the 25th anniversary of the Cerro Grande Fire.
Ribe is a writer and environmental advocate based in northern New Mexico. He is the author of Inferno by Committee: A History of the Cerro Grande Fire, which offers a compelling and meticulously researched account of the prescribed burn that turned into one of the most destructive wildfires in New Mexico history.
Inferno by Committee was re-released in 2025 as Inferno by Committee II and includes more interviews as well as detailed accounts of the 2011 and 2022 Northern New Mexico fires.
A former staff member at the National Park Service and Los Alamos National Laboratory, Ribe draws on deep institutional knowledge and years of field experience in fire management and environmental policy. He is on staff at the Bradbury Science Museum, co-owner of Great Southwest Adventures and Executive Director of Caldera Action, a conservation group focused on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. He is working on a new book about cattle and water in the Southwest.
Ribe’s lecture will be based on his book Inferno by Committee II. He will review the Cerro Grande Fire of 2000 that burned 250 homes in Los Alamos, closed the Lab for more than a week, and burned 58,000 acres of Wildland around Los Alamos. Ribe will talk about the specific reasons the fire happened and why it escaped from government control.
He will then look at the Cerro Grande Fire in the context of much larger and more severe fires that have happened since. The Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains and the Hermit Peak Fire in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains reveal how climate warming is altering wildfire from what it was over the last century, into the monster it has become. He will talk about the federal firefighting agencies and their struggles to adapt to mega-fire. Following his lecture will be a book signing.
In remembrance of the historic Cerro Grande and Las Conchas fires, the Los Alamos Historical Society exhibit now displayed in the Municipal Building features a Cerro Grande Fire timeline, panels of the community pulling together in the midst of tragedy, and community photographs of the Las Conchas Fire.
The Los Alamos Historical Society asks the community to share their stories through posts on the Los Alamos Historical Society’s social media or by emailing archives@losalamoshistory.org.
The Historical Society will also feature a small special exhibit on the night of the lecture at Fuller Lodge.
The Los Alamos Historical Society extends heartfelt appreciation to TechSource for their generous sponsorship of the 2024-2025 Lecture Series and thank them for their continual commitment to supporting the preservation of Los Alamos history.
To view lectures online, visit the Los Alamos Historical Society YouTube Channel.