Dry Lightning Sparks Scores of Wildland Blazes in Northern Nevada

Wednesday, Aug. 28, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Storms late Monday and early Tuesday touched off an estimated 70 fires. Some were allowed to burn themselves out because there were no crews or equipment to fight them. Others flared up on Tuesday after smoldering overnight.

Thirty-one separate fires were sparked in and around Humboldt County.

The largest, known as the Winnemucca Complex fire, had charred about 30,000 acres and threatened some 150 homes and ranches in the Paradise Hills area six miles north of Winnemucca.

There were no reports of any homes being lost.

Evacuations were ordered and firefighters were struggling to get structure protection crews to the scene after smoke and flames closed U.S. 95 from Winnemucca to the Oregon line.

"We can't get engines through," Bureau of Land Management spokesman Mike Whalen said.

People who were forced from their homes spent the night at shelters in Winnemucca and Orovada.

The ferocious fires came as firefighting resources were stretched thin battling blazes throughout the West.

"We have no initial attack capability left," Whalen said. "The crews, some of them have been on for 24 hours and they're getting rummy."

At the Presidential Ostrich of Nevada farm just off U.S. 95, employees with tractors and shovels formed a fire line to protect 140 of the expensive, long-necked birds.

"All hoses are hooked up," farm co-owner Sue Gibson told The Humboldt Sun. "Our main worry is about the baby (ostriches), which are in danger from the smoke."

Another blaze called the Prairie Dog fire broke out north of Winnemucca along Interstate 80, forcing the closure of that highway for a short time on Tuesday.

It was not known how many acres that fire had consumed.

In northern Humboldt County, the Kings River Complex fire charred about 5,000 acres along the Oregon line.

Ranchers extinguished about a half dozen smaller fires Monday night, Whalen said.

Up to 4,000 lightning strikes were recorded in the region from Monday afternoon through early Tuesday, officials said.

The fire dispatch center in Elko said at least 40 fires were sparked in that district Monday. Most were 100 acres or less and at least 25 still were burning on Tuesday.

The largest, 8,000 acres near the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, was being attacked by aerial tankers.

Another exploded across 3,000 acres in Starr Valley east of Elko. About 20 people were evacuated Monday from remote ranches in the area, but were allowed to return later in the day as the flames moved away from structures, officials said. Ten utility poles burned, resulting in scattered power outages.

A fire in the Ruby Valley area east of the Ruby Mountains was contained at about 2,000 acres.

Another fire burned 1,900 acres north of Newmont Gold Co.'s mining operations in Eureka County, apparently a restart of last week's Gold Quarry complex fires. It, too, was contained on Tuesday.

Northwest of Carlin, 8,000 acres were scorched by another fire started from Monday's thunderstorms. The flames were making a run toward the Gold Quarry blaze.

A fire north of Midas burned 1,500 acres, much of it in the Wilderness study Area.

Three-hundred-acre fires were burning in the Palisade area south of Carlin and near the Buckhorn Mine.