Goodsprings fire contained, others fanned by winds

Tuesday, July 5, 2005 | 9:47 a.m.

The 33,569-acre Goodsprings fire was contained Monday night, but winds continued to fan flames at other sites, federal officials said.

All but one of the wildland fires burning in Southern Nevada were caused by lightning strikes, officials said.

A target shooter sparked a 1,200-acre blaze called the Garnet fire that started about 1 p.m. Saturday, Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon said.

The Garnet fire was contained Monday east of U.S. 93 in Lincoln County, where Lincoln County Power Co. power lines were burned, Cannon said. She did not know how many poles had been damaged. No buildings were burned and no firefighters have been injured, she said.

Kevin Oliver, Bureau of Land Management fire management officer, said winds cooperated over the holiday weekend and helped firefighters gain control of the blaze. Federal, state and local firefighting agencies had placed crews and equipment in strategic areas, he said.

Another 200 firefighters continued to battle flames about 35 miles from Mesquite. Known as the South Desert Complex fire, the blaze burned abundant grasses from spring rains, pinyon, juniper and Ponderosa pine trees at higher elevations.

A total of 10 separate fires were part of the South Desert Complex fire that had burned a total of 590,440 acres by Monday.

Air crews were helping more than 800 firefighters on the ground at two large wildland fires, the Duzak and the Delamar, both in Lincoln County. No homes were being threatened, fire spokesman David Chevalier said.

Two firefighters were injured in the Duzak fire, Chevalier said. Smokejumper Jim Duzak, who gave the blaze its name, hurt his hip jumping from a plane and another firefighter sprained an ankle, he said.

"The Duzak is probably going to be one of the largest fires in Nevada," Chevalier said.

The Duzak fire covers about 380,000 acres of steep, rugged terrain near the Utah border in eastern Lincoln County.

Firefighters continued to protect a dozen homes in Motoqua, Utah, near the Nevada border that were threatened by the Duzak blaze.

To the west, the Delamar fire burned more than 56,000 acres, including the newly created Delamar Wilderness Area.

The area includes Joshua trees, pines and an Indian archaeological site.

The area is habitat for the threatened Mojave Desert tortoise.

More than 100 firefighters brought in to battle the Goodsprings blaze were expected to begin leaving the area this morning.