Mar. 11—The federal agency charged with overseeing about $4 billion in recovery aid for those hit hard by the 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire is hosting a three-day workshop to help people through the claims process.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency also will play host to a public town hall and resource fair later this week in Las Vegas, N.M.

FEMA will have representatives on hand from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday in the Student Union Building at New Mexico Highlands University “to offer assistance with the claims process,” according to a news release the agency issued Monday.

The event gives people the chance to visit with Claims Office representatives to ask questions the process or their own individual claim, according to the release.

At 5:30 p.m. Thursday, the agency will hold its town hall event at the college’s Student Union Building where FEMA claims office personnel will be on hand to answer questions.

“We realize people need a variety of ways to get in touch with us and work with us so their claims can be processed,” FEMA spokesman John Mills said in an interview Monday. “We have three public claims offices still open in Las Vegas, Mora and Santa Fe and we are also conducting regular community outreach to meet people where they are in a location that is convenient to them.”

Each day of the workshop has a particular theme, according to the news release: Tuesday is small business day, Wednesday is agriculture/farming day and Thursday is focused on the probate process and flood insurance.

The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, the largest in the state’s recorded history, was ignited when two prescribed burns set by the U.S. Forest Service went awry and then merged into an inferno that scorched 341,000 acres.

The fire tore through Mora, San Miguel and Taos counties, burning hundreds of homes, farms and businesses and displacing thousands of people.

As of this week, FEMA’s New Mexico claims office has approved some 1,808 claims totaling $426 million, Mills said. About 2,745 claims with documentation have been submitted to the agency to date, he said.

During a town hall event in Mora last month some people affected by the fire charged FEMA was moving too slowly and often missing the 180-day deadlines for compensating them.

In a follow-up email, Mills wrote, “FEMA is committed to processing every claim — and speeding up approvals.”