Lightning sparks fires in Reno, across Nevada

Tom Gardner

Thursday, Aug. 3, 2000 | 9:44 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - A stubborn fire burning in an exclusive section of southwest Reno finally began submitting to efforts to surround it.

Fire crews were optimistic they would have a line completely around the Arrowcreek fire by day's end. It estimated size also was halved, from 5,000 acres to 2,475.

It was one of a score of lightning fires touched off late Tuesday as a band of storms swept eastward across the state. Another round of storms on Wednesday added to the smoke in the air over northern Nevada.

In the Reno area, the Red Rock fire north of town was 80 percent contained at 1,500 acres.

Seventy miles south of Reno, the Golden fire complex was estimated at more than 1,200 acres and was expected to grow because of heavy fuels and a lack of people. The fire, near Coleville, Calif., temporarily forced some evacuations on Wednesday and the closure of U.S. 395.

One bright spot was the Keystone fire about 35 miles southwest of Winnemucca, which was contained at 6,371 acres.

Two-thousand acres had burned in the Twin Peak fire 60 miles east of Fallon with no containment.

Eighteen new fires were reported in the Bureau of Land Management's Elko and Winnemucca districts, including the 4,525-acre Charley complex of blazes near Wells and in northeast Elko County, the 8,500-acre Adobe fire 21 miles north of Elko and the 10,000-acre 3 Mile fire 22 miles northeast of Midas, the 5,000-acre Camp Creek fire 50 miles northwest of Wells and the 7,500-acre Jungo complex 20 miles north of Winnemuccca.

Other fires ranged from around 1,500 acres down to a single tree.

Of fires left over from storms last month, the 66,487-acre South Cricket fire north of Wells was finally contained at a cost of $1.84 million so far.

The Coyote fire straddling the Nevada-Utah line 40 miles northeast of Pioche was 90 percent contained at 15,872 acres and the stubborn Phillips Ranch fire in the Humboldt-Toiyabe Forest and Great Basin National Park southeast of Ely remained only 25 percent contained at 1,275 acres.

And the Cherry fire 30 miles northwest of Ely, which was believed contained July 19, spotted outside the containment lines and grew by 500 acres to 7,500 acres with 75 percent containment.

So far this year, 635 fires have consumed at least 346,447 acres in Nevada compared to last year's record 1.7 million acres. Nationally, more than 3.6 million acres have burned this year.