美国国家公共电台 NPR--It was supposed to be a controlled burn, but a New Mexico fire got out of control

It was supposed to be a controlled burn, but a New Mexico fire got out of control

Transcript¹

The biggest wildfire ever recorded in New Mexico is all but contained now, and residents are assessing the damage and challenges to recover.

: [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: In this report, we incorrectly say the U.S. Forest Service started a planned burn in New Mexico that escaped in 2000. In fact, the National Park Service started the burn.]

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

New Mexico's giant wildfire is all but out now. So now people in the burned areas try to rebuild their lives. From our member station KUNM, Alice Fordham reports.

PETER VELAZQUEZ: Come on, ladies.

ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE²: Rancher Peter Velazquez calls to about 20 cows and calves³ in a field next to his house.

VELAZQUEZ: I feed them every morning.

FORDHAM: That's expensive, especially at a time when the cattle would normally be grazing in the mountains that surround this verdant⁴ valley of the Mora River. This year, those mountains are covered in burned patches.

VELAZQUEZ: There's no fences for us. No, they're all burnt. I don't know what's going to happen.

FORDHAM: The Forest Service has forbidden grazing to give the mountains a chance to recover after the fire.

VELAZQUEZ: I don't have a place to keep them on. So right now I'm still feeding.

FORDHAM: Nearby, in the forest, outside the town of Mora, I meet artist and teacher Anita Ross, and we look at the remains⁵ of a tin-roofed cabin, which was her home for 20 years.

ANITA ROSS: Well, and there's literally⁶ just tin on the ground. It burned really hot. There's nothing left in there.

FORDHAM: It was cute, she says, with her artwork and woven baskets. A breeze through the blackened trees shakes the charred⁷ tin. She shows me another pile of twisted junk, which was a studio.

ROSS: I had 30 years worth of every imaginable art supply in there.

FORDHAM: She taught art to local kids as a volunteer.

ROSS: I had a lot of supplies, but they were all categorized. So if I wanted to teach a class on papermaking, bam, I got my stuff. And I'm just going to have to reassess all of that.

FORDHAM: Anita and her husband had been working on a new house. They can live in that. But on the other side of the mountains in the town of Espanola, I meet Bernice Naranjo and her husband Tito, who began renovating⁸ a centuries-old house in 1971.

BERNICE NARANJO: From nothing building, that one little tiny room that was not even a room became a beautiful home.

FORDHAM: She tells me about a lovely chokecherry tree there.

NARANJO: I made some great jam, right? So that was a special treat. When the fire came and we finally got to see our land that was demolished⁹ by the fire, it was so sad because the chokecherry tree was totally cut down.

FORDHAM: Like many in this low-income area, they don't have insurance. They say when they asked FEMA for help, the emergency agency denied them on the grounds the house wasn't their primary residence. Bernice says she'd been spending time with her children lately, but it was their home. They're not alone. Initial estimates suggest hundreds of homes were lost. FEMA says it has given about $4 million to about 1,100 people. So with basic division, that's about $4,000 each. The agency says in this rural area, documentation is often an issue, and it encourages people to appeal rejections¹⁰ and call a hotline for legal aid. Bernice says lots of displaced people have been managing on their own.

NARANJO: Paying on their own, finding money.

FORDHAM: And what angers her the most is that this fire, the Calf¹¹ Canyon¹² Hermits¹³ Peak fire, began as planned burns by the U.S. Forest Service, which escaped control.

NARANJO: All of us are feeling the same grief and anger towards Forest Service that is so intense. I actually wanted to sit and get a bucket of ashes from our house and send it to the Forest Service because they are accountable.

FORDHAM: This isn't the first time the Forest Service allowed what was supposed to be a controlled burn to escape in New Mexico with devastating¹⁴ consequences. In 2000, an escaped planned burn destroyed about 280 homes and damaged the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Back then, Congress passed a law that everyone affected¹⁵ would be fully¹⁶ compensated¹⁷. That could happen this time as well.

New Mexico lawmakers have managed to get similar legislation wrapped into the annual national defense¹⁸ bill. It's passed the House and is on its way to the Senate. But there's still a question of timing¹⁹. Back in 2000, FEMA rebuilt a lot of homes, but two years on, some people were still living in trailers. A government report from 2003 documents lingering unpaid²⁰ claims, and people here say they're in need now. Remember that rancher, Peter Velazquez?

VELAZQUEZ: This fire has really set us back - life-changing for sure.

FORDHAM: His cows are now grazing land where he normally grows hay he'll need over the winter. If he doesn't get help soon...

VELAZQUEZ: Well, I think there's a lot of us that are probably going to have to sell. Either - well, like myself, I might have to get rid of half.

FORDHAM: So during the wait to see if compensation will pass into law, local lawyer Antonia Roybal-Mack is preparing a mass tort case against the Forest Service. She is unconvinced by the report the agency produced on the fire.

ANTONIA ROYBAL-MACK: Basically it's we did everything wrong, but we do everything wrong all the time.

FORDHAM: She wants to sue so that planned burn policy changes and locals like her own family get help.

ROYBAL-MACH: We are talking about generational land, people who live off the land - so filing suits for them to be made whole.

FORDHAM: Meantime, there are things happening. The landscape is getting assistance. The National Guard and the Army Corps²¹ of Engineers built flood defenses. There are plans for reseeding. But people look likely to keep struggling for some time.

For NPR News, I'm Alice Fordham.

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1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 calves   

n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解

参考例句：

• a cow suckling her calves 给小牛吃奶的母牛
• The calves are grazed intensively during their first season. 小牛在生长的第一季里集中喂养。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 verdant   

adj.翠绿的，青翠的，生疏的，不老练的

参考例句：

• Children are playing on the verdant lawn.孩子们在绿茵茵的草坪上嬉戏玩耍。
• The verdant mountain forest turns red gradually in the autumn wind.苍翠的山林在秋风中渐渐变红了。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 charred   

v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦

参考例句：

• the charred remains of a burnt-out car 被烧焦的轿车残骸
• The intensity of the explosion is recorded on the charred tree trunks. 那些烧焦的树干表明爆炸的强烈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 renovating   

翻新，修复，整修( renovate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The increased production was largely attained by renovating old orchards and vineyards. 通过更新老果园和葡萄园，使生产大大增加。
• Renovating that house will cost you a pretty penny. 为了整修那所房子，你得花很多钱。

9 demolished   

v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The factory is due to be demolished next year. 这个工厂定于明年拆除。
• They have been fighting a rearguard action for two years to stop their house being demolished. 两年来，为了不让拆除他们的房子，他们一直在进行最后的努力。

10 rejections   

拒绝( rejection的名词复数 )； 摒弃； 剔除物； 排斥

参考例句：

• Most writers endure a number of rejections before being published. 大部分作家经历无数次的退稿才守得云开，作品得到发表。
• Supervise workers and monitors production quality to minimize rejections. 管理工人，监控生产质量，减少退货。

11 calf   

n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮

参考例句：

• The cow slinked its calf.那头母牛早产了一头小牛犊。
• The calf blared for its mother.牛犊哞哞地高声叫喊找妈妈。

12 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

13 hermits   

（尤指早期基督教的）隐居修道士，隐士，遁世者( hermit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In the ancient China,hermits usually lived in hamlets. 在古代中国，隐士们通常都住在小村子里。
• Some Buddhist monks live in solitude as hermits. 有些和尚在僻静处隐居。

14 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

15 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

16 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

17 compensated   

补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款）

参考例句：

• The marvelous acting compensated for the play's weak script. 本剧的精彩表演弥补了剧本的不足。
• I compensated his loss with money. 我赔偿他经济损失。

18 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

19 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

20 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

21 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。