Wildfires ravage Nevada
RENO — More than 2,000 firefighters battled hundreds of square miles of wildfires in Nevada on Friday, making enough progress on some blazes to allow resources to be shifted to others that remained uncontained or out of control.
Even as they made gains, firefighters braced for more trouble as forecasts calling for dangerous lightning storms loomed on the horizon.
"It is difficult to visualize how much of our state is burning," Gov. Jim Gibbons said Friday after touring fire-ravaged rangeland in northeast Nevada the day before.
Evacuations were ordered and some structures were threatened, although numbers were not immediately available.
"In one short helicopter ride, I saw fires that have consumed 300,000 acres in Elko County alone," Gibbons said. "Besides the loss of grasslands, the impact on wildlife and ecology will be devastating. Businesses that depend on ranching and hunting will suffer the effects for years to come."
Wildfires burned throughout the tinder-dry West, and Nevada had 22 major fires burning across more than 450 square-miles, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center.
In southwestern Utah, fires that began in the back country of Zion National Park spilled into private land and other federal parcels. The Dakota Hills fires have burned more than 8,000 acres, or 12.5 square miles.
Elsewhere in Utah, a wildfire that may have been started by sparks from a flat tire raced across thousands of acres in Juab and Sanpete counties Friday, a day after burning through a campground and motel and forcing the airlift of 18 Boy Scouts and two hikers.
With a highly skilled team on its way from Florida, 150 area firefighters were battling the Salt Creek fire against a backdrop of extraordinary summer heat and a lack of rain — and no immediate relief predicted.
On Interstate 15, Utah’s main north-south route, smoke was visible from at least 15 miles away. A thick plume looked like a volcano erupting.
"It only takes a cigarette or a match and this stuff will explode," said Fred Burns, owner of Burns Brothers Ranch RV Resort in Fountain Green, which was nearby but not affected.
The fire had consumed about 24 square miles, or more than 15,000 acres, officials reported.
In Nevada, the Hawken fire that broke out Monday in southwest Reno and forced the evacuation of hundreds of residents was 34 percent contained and estimated at 2,700 acres. No homes were lost, and it was burning away from residences in a national forest and wilderness areas.
More than 700 firefighters were assigned to the fire, but about 100 were to be released with more to follow over the next few days.
"The majority of the fires are in the northeast corner of the state in Elko County," said Ron Wenker, Nevada state director for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
"We also have quite a few large fires burning in the Battle Mountain and Winnemucca areas as well," he said. "It is serious enough that … cumulatively this week we have brought in 2,400 firefighters to help fight the fires at hand."
Henri Bosson, the BLM’s national deputy director for operations, said he’s especially concerned about the unusually dry conditions that prompted the federal firefighting preparedness level to be pushed to its highest level much earlier in the fire season than usual.
"We are just now entering what would now be considered the traditional fire season," Bosson told reporters in Reno before beginning an aerial tour that would take him over some of the region’s largest fires in north-central Nevada on Friday and northeast Nevada on Saturday.
"We expect that we are going to be seeing a lot more lightning over the next few weeks so we are very, very concerned about the situation," he said.
After flying over fires in the Winnemucca area, Bosson said those fires "are pretty much going to be contained the next few days."
There were 12 large fires burning in Elko County, the largest being the 60,000-acre Red House Complex west of Elko. The Hepworth Complex around Wells was estimated at 45,000 acres and 60 percent contained.
Another complex burning near the Winecup Ranch north of Wells has burned about 37,000 acres and was 30 percent contained, according to the Elko Interagency Dispatch Center.
