Fires burn more than 28,000 acres in Elko County

Tuesday, July 20, 1999 | 9:23 a.m.

While most of the blazes were blamed on lightning, the largest - the 23,000-acre Rain fire - was listed as being human-caused.

It broke out Sunday about 10 miles southeast of Carlin. Crews could achieve only 20 percent containment in Monday's erratic winds.

The fire neared Carlin on Sunday, but stayed south of the Humboldt River. It burned about 40 power poles on the Sierra Pacific line to the Rain Mine and Newmont Mining Corp. brought in a generator to supply the mine.

Besides the Rain fire, personnel and equipment also were on the Railroad Pass fire south of Jiggs, a 500-acre blaze started by lightning Sunday afternoon.

Lightning also sparked a 1,500-acre fire southeast of the Ruby Marshes and a 3,200-acre blaze near Wendover.

Lightning also is blamed for 10 much smaller fires that were controlled after burning anywhere from a tenth of an acre to about 90 acres.

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