Wildfire scorches parched Spring Mountains

Monday, July 15, 2002 | 10:55 a.m.

LOVELL CANYON -- A 400-acre wildland fire raced across the rim of Lovell Canyon east of Mount Charleston Sunday, bringing to the parched Spring Mountains a blaze that firefighters have feared all summer.

Fire crews were monitoring the blaze, dubbed the Lost Cabin Fire, this morning, watching for dry lightning storms or wind that could stoke the fire further.

"It could double or triple in size," incident commander Larry Benham of the U.S. Forest Service said.

The National Weather Service was predicting a slight chance of thunderstorms and winds from the south between 10 and 20 mph.

Crews were protecting lives and property, but would not try to save the hard-to-reach canyon, which lies between the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and Mount Charleston, Benham said.

"It's too steep to risk fighting flames," Benham said.

More crews, including men and women who would work to stop the fire near the homes by clearing dead brush and trees, were expected today.

The Lost Cabin Fire was being considered the first major wildfire this year, although 300 acres of wetlands burned in the Las Vegas Wash in March. Other fires have burned in Northern Nevada, near Winnemucca, Fallon and on the state's border in Walker, Calif.

"This is the one we have been waiting for, fearfully waiting for," Bureau of Land Management spokesman Phil Guerrero said late Sunday.

Seven structures in Lovell Canyon -- a cabin and six mobile homes -- were evacuated after flames ignited tinder-dry pinyon pine trees by an apparent lightning strike near Lost Cabin, about 50 miles west of Las Vegas. No one was injured Sunday.

"It is very big, very fast and very dangerous," Guerrero said. Fourteen fires started by lightning striking the Spring Mountains in the past three days burned less than an acre each, because fire crews were able to douse them quickly.

About 75 firefighters came from BLM, the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, the Nevada Division of Forestry and Clark County Fire Department to battle the blaze, which officials suspected started from a dry lightning strike early Sunday morning.

Among the structures in the canyon was the Torino ranch, about two miles northeast of the fire, which has two lakes, crystal clear streams, deer, rabbit, coyote and several mountain bird species.

Brett Torino, a developer and triathlete, owns the ranch and had been negotiating with the Forest Service to get the property under federal control.

A fire attack helicopter swooped into one of the lakes to douse flames near a mobile home on Sunday.

Residents in Las Vegas and Pahrump saw a tower of black smoke that reached into the sky Sunday afternoon.

The Nevada Highway Patrol closed the road to Lovell Canyon because gawkers were blocking firefighters from reaching the blaze.

Six fire engines responded to the fire, including teams from the Mountain Springs and Blue Diamond stations, Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said.

More than 3,000 acres of Spring Mountain forests burned in 2000, but the flames and smoke were primarily on the west side of the range.