Capitan Gap Fire

Smokey Bear Vista Point in 1990, with Capitan Gap in the distance between the sign and Tahoe National Forest 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.[1] 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.

  1. ^ "Capitan Gap Fire Disaster". Archived from the original on 2013-10-18. Retrieved 2013-08-02.