Wetlands blaze a sign of very dry winter

Monday, April 1, 2002 | 9:09 a.m.

The first wildfire of the year, burning more than 200 acres in the Las Vegas Wash Friday and Saturday, left fire officials worried that this will be a long, hot season.

"This is the first wildfire of the season, and it's two months early," Clark County Fire Department Capt. Ralph McClintock said Saturday before 14 firefighters walked around the blackened area, looking for hot spots.

Firefighters finished dousing the blaze in and around the Clark County Wetlands Park on the eastern edge of the Las Vegas Valley about 2 p.m. Saturday, after allowing the center of the blaze to burn on Friday. Smaller fires reignited through the night.

Officials did not know the cause of the blaze Sunday, but McClintock noted that the flames spread quickly through dry grasses, cattails and tamarisk bushes along the wash, pushed by winds of 10 to 15 mph.

Rainfall since December has been less than half the usual 2.73 inches for winter, according to the National Weather Service.

Bureau of Land Management firefighter Greg Marfil ordered backfires and water poured on flaming brush near a Tropicana Avenue and Broadbent Boulevard neighborhood, where 25 homes were evacuated as the fire reached within 20 yards of the development.

Firefighters from six agencies responded to the flames that started about 11:30 a.m. on Friday and spread plumes of black smoke quickly behind Sam Boyd Stadium, sparking multiple blazes north to the Clark County Nature Center and south of Duck Creek.

They responded from Clark County, city of Las Vegas, Henderson, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and the Nevada Division of Forestry.

The last large fire in the wash was sparked by fireworks on July 4, 1996, McClintock said. It burned 100 acres of dried undergrowth.

Bureau of Reclamation public information officer Bob Walsh said he saw the smoke from Boulder Highway as he returned to Boulder City from Hoover Dam.

"It was this huge, huge plume of smoke in the sky," Walsh said. "It looked like the whole city of Las Vegas was on fire."

Marfil said he fell asleep at midnight and at 1 a.m. Saturday the emergency dispatcher called to say hot spots were flaring up again.

Smoke poured into Southern Nevada's skies for more than five hours before the fire was brought under control. The smoke did not pose a pollution threat, County Air Quality Management Assistant Director Carrie MacDougall said.

The fire burned through a new trail in Duck Creek, leaving wooden railings intact, but destroying a 20-foot lookout tower at the southeast end of the trail.

But the nature park should recover, said Peter Zavattaro, a member of the Friends of the Wetland Park, who was reviewing the damage Saturday.

"This will probably stimulate growth, a whole new generation of growth," he said.