Firefighters expect heavy wildfires across Nevada

Tuesday, May 29, 2001 | 10:55 a.m.

Nevada firefighters are bracing for a potentially busier season this year than last as they prepare to fight forest fires from the Spring Mountains to Lake Tahoe.

Last year's wildfires burned more than 3 million acres -- an area larger than Connecticut -- across the West. Just under 10,000 acres burned in Nevada.

State Forester Steve Robinson said on Friday that the fire danger is worse than last year.

"We are all expecting another 2000 for wildland fires," Robinson said, adding that forest conditions are drier than normal. "It's like July in May. It's scary."

Following late winter rains, the Spring Mountains, about 35 miles west of the Las Vegas Valley, are particularly vulnerable to an explosive growth of grasses that could fuel flames in the foothills, fire experts said.

The grasses can spread a wildfire faster and hotter than blazing forests alone, Tom Suwyn, fire management officer for the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, said.

The early grasses not only trigger earlier wildfires, state Forester Steve Frady said. They can also extend the fire season.

Once the dry grasses in spring burn, a second grass crop can appear, providing more fuel, Frady said.

"Historically, we live in a fire-prone environment," he said.

Lightning strikes have already ignited two separate dry trees -- one in Trout Canyon and the other near Carpenter Canyon -- within the past week, Forest Service spokesman Lee Nelson said. Both, on the western slopes of the Spring Mountains, were extinguished quickly.

Kyle Canyon's potential for fire was raised from moderate to high last week, where it remained this morning, Nelson said.

Last year 2,900 acres in the Spring Mountains burned. Humans caused 57 fires and lightning sparked another 48 blazes, Nelson said.

The risk to Kyle and Lee canyons goes beyond the stands of pinyon and juniper pines. There are 1,300 homes nestled among those towering trees.

Last summer's thunderstorms brought plenty of lightning and little rain, said Robert Ruffridge, regional manager for the Nevada Division of Forestry. Ruffridge is an expert in the plants that grow in the area.

The possibility is great that Southern Nevada's summer heat will dry out the grasses again this summer, creating fuel for a wildland fire, Suwyn noted. All it takes then is a lightning bolt or a careless spark to create the flames.

The two major Southern Nevada fires last year, around Buck Springs near Cold Creek Canyon northwest of Las Vegas and Trout Canyon southwest of Las Vegas, were sparked by lightning striking a single tree, though most wildfires in Southern Nevada are caused by people, Suwyn said.

As the Memorial Day weekend kicked off the summer camping and picnicking season, the Forest Service reminded visitors that no open flames are allowed within a one-mile radius of Kyle and Lee canyons, including Deer Creek Highway, Mountain Springs, Trout Canyon and Cold Creek Canyon, including Willow Springs.