Summerlin not at risk, officials say

Stephen Curran and Christina Littlefield

Wednesday, July 17, 2002 | 11:18 a.m.

As fires continue to rage in Lovell Canyon, coming as close as 25 miles west of Las Vegas, Summerlin residents are more concerned about air quality than the fire encroaching on their homes.

In fact, some residents didn't notice the fire until ash began to fall like snow flurries in the master-planned community.

"Actually, today is the first I'd heard of it," accountant Nancy Wolf said.

So far, Wolf and others are confident that firefighters will contain the blaze, which has engulfed more than 3,400 acres.

Despite the huge pillars of smoke that loomed over the Spring Mountains on Tuesday, officials said the fire posed little concern to Las Vegas residents, outside the air quality concerns.

"I'd say the chances of the fire getting to Summerlin are about zero," BLM spokesman Phil Guerrero said this morning. "For a fire to burn you need heat, fuel and air. If you take away one of those things, you have no fire.

"There's no fuel (between Summerlin and the fire.) They've got thousands of acres of protection."

Summerlin residents Jim and Carla Ratliff, who moved to Las Vegas three years ago from Southern California, have been through fires before, and aren't worried about the flames moving east.

"We don't get concerned until they start evacuating," Carla said. "You certainly worry, but what can you do?"

The Ratliffs, who are expecting a child and have a 5-year-old who has asthma, say that their biggest concern is the air quality but that their son has not had any problems.

"We're keeping (our son) inside," Jim said. "But so far so good."

Despite the visible reminder of the fires, no formal air quality warnings were issued Tuesday. The Clark County Department of Air Quality Management reported 33 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter, well below the 150 micrograms considered unhealthy, at its Palo Verde station in Summerlin Tuesday afternoon.

One of the reasons for the low pollution reading is because Clark County does not monitor for particulate matter the size of the ash, said Carrie MacDougall, assistant director of the department.

"Remember that those monitors measure particulate matter that is 10 microns or less," MacDougall said. "The ash obviously is much, much larger."

However, this does not mean Las Vegans are in the clear, she said, recommending that area residents stay indoors "to be on the safe side."

But it does mean area homeowners are right not to be concerned about fire encroaching on their property, officials from the Bureau of Land Management said.

Guerrero said that is because juniper and conifer trees, common in the area of the Lovell Canyon fire, do not grow close enough to the city to be of concern.

In order for the fire to reach Summerlin, the flames would have to jump the ridge, burn downhill and cross seven miles of flat land, which is counter-intuitive since fire normally burns uphill, BLM spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon said.

In fact, "dry lightning" strikes, like those believed to have caused the blaze, are the exception. The bulk of fires outside the city are caused by campfires that grow out of control, he said.

Generally, however, homes in developed areas are not surrounded by the same type of flammable vegetation as those in outlying areas, said National Weather Service meteorologist Ron McQueen.

"I have every confidence it will be contained," McQueen said. "We're so far from that vegetation it's not of concern."

The greatest threat within the city is to structures still under construction, since those homes are nothing but wood frames and do not have fire-retardant stucco siding installed, said Bob Leinbach, spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department.

This fact is of little comfort to entrepreneur and Summerlin resident Donna Schick, who has lived in Las Vegas for six years but has "never seen anything this bad before."

"It's a little comforting, but I wonder if they're doing everything that could be done," she said.

While fires throughout the southwest have increased the workload for firefighters in the region, Guerrero said it did not come as a surprise to the BLM.

"This is what we feared all summer long," he said. "Now it's our turn to deal with (wildfires). Mother Nature is ruling the roost."