Marsh fire just the beginning

Friday, June 21, 2002 | 9:21 a.m.

After 50 acres of marshes east of Las Vegas burned Thursday morning, local firefighters said they are gearing up for the worst wildland fire season in memory.

The desert, the Las Vegas wetlands and Southern Nevada's mountain forests are so dry that a spark from a car's catalytic converter, a carelessly tossed cigarette butt or a lightning strike could spark a catastrophic fire.

The Spring Mountains woods west of Las Vegas are drier than a bundle of two-by-fours at a Home Depot, as one firefighter described it.

The weather forecast calls for continued hot and dry conditions for the near future. The Las Vegas Valley has received a tenth of an inch of rain since Jan. 1. Normally by now, winter rains have dropped more than two inches of precipitation.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, reported that 1.8 million acres of forests and wilderness have burned nationwide so far this year, compared to 1.3 million at this same time in 2000.

"That's 600,000 more acres burned than in 2000," NIFC spokeswoman Sue Tholen said. Another 161 new fires sparked by dry lightning strikes started on Thursday, but most of those were contained, except for two in California and two in Arizona, Tholen said.

Firefighters do not know what ignited the bone-dry brush behind the Silver Bowl on the edge of the Las Vegas Wash, Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said. Clark County and Bureau of Land Management crews were sent to fight the blaze, which burned from midnight until 10 a.m. Thursday.

It was the second wildfire in the wash. About 300 acres burned during the last week in March.

Two BLM trucks, two National Park Service trucks and another tanker from the Forest Service were sent to contain the fire, BLM spokesman Phil Guerrero said.

Each truck carries two to four firefighters, and the Nevada Division of Forestry sent in hand crews who walked the fire's perimeter looking for hot spots, Guerrero said.

Guerrero himself is packed and ready to respond to raging fires in Colorado or Arizona sometime after midnight.

"All I'm waiting for is the phone call," he said. "This is the worst fire season in the history of America."

Southern Nevada firefighters work in 27-member teams that handle everything from hands-on firefighting to supplying food and communications. The incident commander of each team can call in more firefighters or send men and equipment to the worst hot spot.

Although Guerrero may leave town, assigned forces to the area include a BLM fire engine, three engines from the Forest Service to cover Mount Charleston and the Spring Mountains and a patrol single-engine aircraft tanker based in Mesquite.

That is enough firefighters and equipment for an initial attack, he said.

"If the fire goes above 100 acres, we would begin rolling forces from other states here," Guerrero said.

The Lake Mead National Recreation Area, in a rare move, is operating under fire restrictions as strict as those for the Spring Mountains, said Karla Norris, public affairs officer for the National Park Service.

"It is very unusual for us to do this, and nothing this strict has been issued before," she said.

The Park Service covers 1.5 million acres in the Lake Mead area, including dry desert brush and mid-elevation plants, she said.

"The desert is always a fire hazard," Norris said. "We are also worried about stray fireworks during the Fourth of July."

It is illegal to ignite fireworks, cigarettes or campfires in the desert, the Spring Mountains or on land at Lake Mead.

"This year it would be best if Las Vegas residents and visitors didn't shoot fireworks off anywhere," Norris said.

Since the nation's forest firefighters are strained already, Marines, Air Force and Army personnel are being trained to replace exhausted crews as the long, hot summer continues.