Is Something Burning?
Active wildfires and prescribed burns near Taos right now, from the national incident map — with the alert channels that matter in an evacuation.
Active wildfires and prescribed burns near Taos right now, from the national incident map — with the alert channels that matter in an evacuation.
Smoke on the wind has carried a question here since the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire burned one county south in 2022. This page reads the national wildland fire incident map around Taos and answers it plainly — and when the smoke is a prescribed burn, it says so.
No active wildfires reported near Taos right now.
As of June 12 at 3:44 PM, CAL FIRE lists 8 active incidents statewide — none within 100 miles of town.
This page is not an alert system
The Carson National Forest went to Stage 1 fire restrictions on April 24, 2026 — earlier than usual: campfires only inside Forest Service-provided fire structures at developed recreation sites, and smoking only in enclosed vehicles, buildings, developed sites, or a cleared three-foot circle. Stages can rise mid-season; the Carson NF link below is the authority. (Checked June 12, 2026.)
Land agencies set fires deliberately in cooler, wetter windows to thin the fuel a wildfire would feed on. They put real smoke in the air. This page lists them in their own section, separately from wildfires — a planned burn, not a wildfire.
The 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire — the largest in New Mexico history — burned one county south of here. It reset how the whole region reads a smoke column, and it is why this page exists.
Kit Carson Electric runs a wildfire-mitigation program that can shut off power deliberately during extreme wind and fire weather. If the lights go out on a windy spring day, check the co-op's updates before assuming the worst.
April through June — dry ground, hard southwest winds — is when the danger peaks. The July–August monsoon usually eases it. Drought years stretch the season at both ends.
Checked June 12 at 3:44 PM. Incident data from CAL FIRE — California state incident information is published for public use (per the state’s conditions of use, generally public domain). Acreage and containment lag the ground truth, especially in a fire’s first hours.