Friday, Aug. 20, 2010 | noon
Clark County Fire Department investigators issued their official report today on a massive 600-acre wildfire near Moapa earlier this summer, calling it accidental in nature.
The fire, which started July 1 and was fully extinguished July 5, was “most probably” caused by mulch and dried brush coming into contact with the hot exhaust system of a Ford pickup truck, according to the report.
The 2005 Ford F-150 had been rented to Native Resources, which was clearing the brush off Southern Nevada Water Authority property, officials said. At the time of the fire, workers told investigators they were on their final day of the project, officials said.
When the fire initially started under the truck, the workers tried to extinguish the fire with buckets of water. Their attempts failed and the fire spread, according to the report.
Firefighters used hand crews, fire trucks and helicopters to extinguish the blaze.
The only injury was to one firefighter who suffered a heat stroke.
The fire damaged several structures, including facilities used by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a home and trailers.
Join the Discussion:
Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.
Full comments policy