Thursday, June 23, 2005 | 11:18 a.m.
There are 200 firefighters battling 16 blazes on more than 5,000 acres of public lands around the Las Vegas Valley this morning.
The following fires were sparked by several of the 680 lightning strikes that ' ombarded Southern Nevada on Wednesday, Bureau of Land Management officials sai' . All acreage is approximate.
Thirteen wildland fires ignited by lightning storms Wednesday were still burning this morning throughout Southern Nevada.
Five fires in Red Rock Canyon continued to burn this morning. At least 170 acres of land were ablaze Wednesday in the separate fires in Red Rock Canyon. The five blazes are in remote locations and extend from the north side of the canyon to Pine Creek.
The largest wildfire in the valley ignited 3,000 acres of dry brush in the Desert National Wildlife Refuge north of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway between U.S. Highway 93 and Interstate 15.
Another large fire in Goodsprings, about 38 miles southwest of Las Vegas, was burning 2,000 acres yesterday but by this morning had been reduced to 1,500 acres.
No one was hurt and no property was damaged in the wildfires, but Nevada officials requested help from other states to help extinguish the fires, said Robbie McAboy, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.
"Our resources are stretched to the limit," she said, speaking at the scenic overlook at Red Rock Canyon. Firefighting teams were attempting to put out at least three fires at Red Rock Canyon on Wednesday.
Smoke could be seen billowing hundreds of feet into the air from two of the fires at the canyon.
About 350 firefighters were battling the various blazes this morning, said Kirsten Cannon, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Land Management, lead agency in the wildland firefight.
Three single-engine air tankers and three helicopters attacked the fires by air, while 20 engines and two water tenders, which carry equipment and fire personnel, attempted to control the various fires on the ground.
Dozens of people drove to Red Rock Canyon on Wednesday to watch the fire in the distance. Juan Walker, 33, who lives on Via Spiga Drive several miles from the fires, said he had seen the smoke rising and wanted to investigate.
"I'm originally from New Orleans so I usually have to see this on TV," Walker said from the scenic overlook at Red Rock Canyon.
The winter and spring rains brought an explosive growth of grasses and brush that made Southern Nevada ripe for summer wildland fires. The thunderstorms brought little rain but severe lightning, sparking flames in the parched growth.
State Forester Pete Anderson said that the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise would dedicate more firefighters to Southern Nevada. They are expected to arrive over the next few days.
The state sent a total of 32 Conservation Corps firefighters from Ely, Tonopah, Pioche and Indian Springs along with two crew bosses to Southern Nevada, Anderson said.
Northern Nevada had six wildland fires so far this year, all caused by humans, Anderson said.
Fires burned around the Las Vegas Valley in the Spring Mountains, Red Rock National Conservation Area, the McCullough Mountain range, the Las Vegas Wash and the Mormon Mountains near Mesquite.
Mount Charleston Lodge at the end of the two-lane Kyle Canyon Road had received enough rainfall to wet the ground and prevent any wildland fires, said Julie Ploeger at the lodge office Wednesday afternoon.
But driving to work, Ploeger saw that there was trouble in Red Rock Canyon.
"I didn't see any flames, just some of the smoke," she said.
Thunder clouds lit up the skies with lightning flashes overnight in the valley after the storms started about 3 a.m. Wednesday.
Lightning struck a condominium complex at 1:30 p.m. in the 700 block of Carnegie Street near Paseo Verde in Green Valley, Henderson Fire Department Battalion Chief Robert Maroney said. Four condos were destroyed and four others were damaged for an estimated loss of $500,000 in the two-alarm fire, Maroney said.
"Very few people were home at the time," Maroney said, noting that there were no injuries.
One firefighter suffered from exhaustion and was treated and back on the job Wednesday night.
"It was so miserably hot and humid," Maroney said. The fire took 45 minutes to extinguish.
Lightning also struck south of the Mormon Mountains, about 15 miles south of the city of Mesquite, sparking a wildland fire. Mesquite is roughly 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas.
"I can smell smoke, but I can't see any smoke," city engineer Allen Bell said by telephone late Wednesday.
The city's fire crew had not been called out on the wildland fire, Bell said.
Two years ago lightning ignited a fire that burned for more than a week in the Mormon Mountains.
The wet weather caused at least one weather-related accident, Metro Police said.
At 3:26 a.m. a 21-year-old Las Vegas woman, Jennifer Grime, was seriously injured when she lost control of her car and slid off the wet pavement on Industrial Road near Brownstone Court, police said.
Her 2001 Saturn slid 240 feet into the desert and rolled over several times, police said.
Grime was thrown out and was taken to a hospital with serious injuries.
The storms resulted after an intense high pressure -- a mass of still, clear air -- settled over the Four Corners area, pushing moist air west and northward toward Southern Nevada.
The pattern occurs from July through September and is known as the Southern monsoon.
"It doesn't always mean rain," said Jim Ashby, a climatologist with the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno.
The National Weather Service reported 0.33 of an inch of rain fell in South Highland and 0.28 of an inch in Henderson.
The National Park Service did not report any major wilderness fires in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Park Service spokeswoman Roxanne Dey said.
However, Park Service rangers, alarmed by the dense growth of brush and grasses from winter and spring rains, ordered extra firefighting teams to the area before Memorial Day, Dey said.
"It looks like they called it right," Dey said.
Crews of three Park Service firefighters with a fire engine were in place at Jean, 30 miles south of Las Vegas; Overton, 45 miles northeast of Las Vegas; Katherine's Landing on Lake Mohave; and Meadview on the Arizona side of Lake Mead.
In addition, a single air tanker is on standby at Jean, Dey said.
The Park Service has also sent 18 "hot shot" jumpers to assist other federal firefighters, Dey said.
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