Blazes draw firefighters from around nation

Scott Sonner

Friday, Aug. 6, 1999 | 11:03 a.m.

RENO -- Firefighters were brought in by the hundreds to fight wildfires that blackened more than 900 square miles of Nevada range, threatening ranches and historic buildings.

Thousands of lightning strikes from storms Wednesday and Thursday sparked an estimated 80 fires across Northern Nevada.

The fires were estimated to have burned 600,000 acres by early today, an area nearly the size of Rhode Island. No injuries were reported and only one structure -- a storage shed -- was destroyed.

An additional 1,700 firefighters were shipped in from around the country on Thursday, bringing the total by this morning to 2,500 with more on the way. The battle was expected to extend into the weekend.

"It's too early to say how long it will take. There are so many fires and we are spread so thin," JoLynn Worley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management, said late Thursday.

The extra help was especially needed in the north-central part of the state along Interstate 80, where fires threatened a housing subdivision near Battle Mountain and historic buildings in the old mining town of Unionville.

The lightning strikes ignited bumper crops of highly flammable cheat grass and sage brush that have built up over five unusually wet winters in the high desert east of the Sierra Nevada.

"We had more severe fire behavior than we anticipated," said Richard Brown, a BLM spokesman in Winnemucca, about 160 miles northeast of Reno. "We have matted grass and very hot, dry conditions."

The highway patrol periodically shut down I-80 near Battle Mountain and Winnemucca as flames jumped the road and smoke reduced visibility to zero. State Route 278 south of Carlin also was closed early this morning because of flames.

Volunteer fire departments aided federal air tankers, helicopters and hotshot crews, often working in steep, rocky terrain.

"Our local resources are stretched very thin and lightning is not our friend," said Rich Harvey, western regional chief for the Nevada Division of Forestry.

"Everybody is kind of sucking it up to help everybody else out," he added. "Earlier this year we had a lot of our crews in Florida. This could be the time for pay back."

Fire crews also were battling blazes Thursday in Idaho, Montana, Washington and California. They declared a 1,100-acre fire contained Thursday near Dailey Lake in the Paradise Valley south of Livingston, Mont.

Idaho's Mule Butte fire had charred 92,500 acres but was 80 percent contained by late Thursday afternoon. An estimated 230 firefighters still were working a 130-acre fire near Wisdom, Mont.

In Washington, 80 firefighters were called in and more than 10,000 gallons of retardant were dropped on the Lake Wenatchee complex of fires, about 25 miles from Leavenworth.