Predictable

I graduated from high school at Los Alamos, and then worked for the Lab for 16 years before moving to Santa Fe. So I am very familiar with that environment. From my standpoint, this devasting fire was totally predictable. I'm just surprised that it took this long for it to happen. For many, many years I have thought that this event happening wasn't a matter of "if" but "when".
Apparently the National Park Service bungled this one -- big time. But if it hadn't been the NPS, then some other agent would have triggered this -- guaranteed. The real culprit is our 100 year old national policy of trying to fool mother nature and supressing each and every fire. Fortunately this attitude is changing, but too late to prevent this present Cerro Grande fire.
I agree that the C&TS has to continually take all prudent precautions against fire along the line. It has been explained to me that there are two types of fires which are likely to be set by a passing train. The first type erupts almost immediately - within a minute or two. The second type is caused by hot cinders (?) which will sit and smoulder, and may not cause a fire to be visible for maybe 10-15 minutes.