Officials: Lightning caused wildfire

Friday, June 9, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

PAHRUMP -- Lightning, which left a tree smoldering for over a week, caused the Buck Springs fire that has charred 2,000 acres of public land in the Spring Mountains, investigators said today.

An interagency investigative team from the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, state fire marshal's office and Nye County Emergency Management Service pinned the cause on a May 25 lightning strike.

"The original pinyon pine was found," Forest Service spokeswoman Betty Blodgett said, noting that the lightning struck 2 miles from the nearest road at Buck Springs, 17 miles northeast of Pahrump and 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

"Once the lightning ignited the fire, it smoldered in decayed matter at the base of the tree for several days before it took off," she said.

Firefighters from federal, state and local agencies continued today to battle flames flaring up within the 3-square-mile burned area today.

Fire managers were once again using helicopters this morning to dump water on the remaining hot spots. The helicopters were grounded Wednesday afternoon and Thursday because of high winds.

In the lower elevations of the fire zone, winds gusted up to 60 mph, while on high peaks around the blaze 90 mph gusts were recorded.

About 550 firefighters continued their efforts today to scrape out a 2-foot-wide ring of bare ground around the wildfire, which had reached 95 percent containment late Thursday, Blodgett said.

"We expect to have it fully contained today," Blodgett said. Officials say the cost of fighting the fire for seven days has now surpassed $1 million.

The strong winds extinguished flames and dispersed heavy smoke that once danced at the ridge line of Willow Peak above the small community of Cold Creek, where 80 residents nervously tracked the fire. The residents were never forced to evacuate.

The National Weather Service predicted cooler temperatures and a shift and decrease in the winds after a cold front passes through Nevada today.

The fire could be declared out by early next week, Blodgett said.

After that, up to 100 firefighters will remain to mop up, helping to preserve the natural, rugged beauty of the remote lands, Blodgett said.

To prevent more blazes, the Forest Service has restricted open fires in the Spring Mountains for the entire summer, she said. Campfires will be allowed only in areas with permanent inlaid cooking grills or in campgrounds with fees. This restriction includes wood and charcoal fires and even smoking cigarettes in the open.

Violating fire restrictions is a misdemeanor and carries a $5,000 fine or imprisonment of not more than six months, or both.

The mountainsides in the fire area are so steep that fire crews from the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nye County, Clark County and the Pahrump and Cold Creek volunteer fire departments are bused into the foothills. Then they slowly climb up to the burn area.

Bus driver Jack Clarke, a 30-year firefighting veteran with the California Department of Forestry, sat waiting for tired crews to return Thursday as soot, dust and smoke covered the windows of the white bus.

Clarke arrived with his first busload of workers early Monday from California. After retiring from fighting forest fires in 1994, he continues to ferry busloads of fire crews around the country.

"It's going to be a busy summer everywhere," Clarke said of the 450 fires burning across the nation.

When asked if he misses the adrenaline charge of fighting forest flames face to face, Clarke shook his head and answered, "Not at all. That is why I'm inside this bus and out of the wind."