80,000 acres blackened in northern Nevada

Wednesday, July 19, 2000 | 12:08 p.m.

The Prince Royal blaze three miles east of Imlay covered at least 30,000 acres by Wednesday. The perimeter was 45 percent contained with full containment possible by nightfall.

Fifty miles north of Winnemucca, the Bilk Creek Complex of six fires had spread to 52,000 acres. It, too was 45 percent contained.

The explosive spread of the fires left a handful of crews coping with thousands of burning acres.

"The cavalry is supposedly coming," Bureau of Land Management spokesman Dave Murphy said on Tuesday. "We'll give them a briefing and they'll hit the ground running."

He said an exact assessment of the fires was impossible without aerial reconnaissance.

The Gregg Canyon fire 25 miles southeast of Winnemucca was contained at 1,200 acres and the Big Springs fire 26 miles southeast of Wells burned 1,700 acres. Neither was threatening any structures.

The Cherry fire 70 miles north of Ely was contained Tuesday at 7,073 acres and the Pumpernickel fire 30 miles southwest of Winnemucca also was contained at 900 acres. Both were started by lightning July 11.

All the fires that started Monday were also from lightning strikes.

Before the thunderstorms hit, 128,131 acres had been lost since the fire season began in June, state officials said. Last year, the worst on record, about 1.7 million acres burned, an area the size of Delaware.