Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Fire scorches 1,500 acres

Truck accident sparks blaze on Mount Charleston

Firefighters work a fire break Monday on Mount Charleston. The blaze had burned about 1,500 acres as of Monday evening. Photo by John Gurzinski. Hot spots light up the sky Monday evening at Mount Charleston. Officials said that a crew of about 15 to 20 firefighters were monitoring the blaze overnight. Photo by John Gurzinski. A fire that started after a vehicle crash about 12:30 p.m. had scorched nearly 1,500 acres by Monday evening. Federal, state and local firefighters attacked the blaze, and authorities evacuated a Girl Scout camp and a youth correctional facility. Click image for enlargement. Darryl Miller hugs his daughter, Katherine, 10, at the Girl Scout Service Center after she was evacuated from camp in the Mount Charleston area. Photo by Ralph Fountain. A fire truck moves into position to fight the Robber's Fire Monday on Mount Charleston. Photo by Clint Karlsen. A helicopter drops fire retardant Monday on a ridge on Mount Charleston. Additional air support is expected to arrive today. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

A vehicle crash Monday sparked a swift-moving fire on Mount Charleston, scorching an estimated 1,500 acres by nightfall and prompting residents to evacuate their homes.

Flames raged within 1 1/2 miles of structures, with the nearest target being the Mount Charleston Hotel. A nearby Girl Scout camp and the Spring Mountain Youth Camp for juveniles were evacuated.

Shortly after the fire started, police set up a blockade at Kyle Canyon Road and prohibited residents from entering, even to check on their children or pets.

While residents tried to phone loved ones, helicopter crews tried to slow the mountaintop blaze with water drops.

Originally reported as a 20-acre fire, by 5 p.m. the Robber's Fire, named after the Robber's Roost hiking trail, had swelled to 1,500 acres, said Assistant Fire Chief Mark Blankensop of the U.S. Forest Service in Southern Nevada.

But gusty winds proved an ally to firefighters, blowing to the northwest and confining the blaze to pine and juniper trees along state Route 158, in the opposite direction of the structures.

Some fire crews braced themselves for a 24-hour work day and hoped the winds would continue to show mercy until today.

"The winds are favorable ... If it (the wind) switched, we'd have some problems," Blankensop said, adding the fire could jump the mountain and head toward Kyle Canyon, where most people in Mount Charleston reside.

That was the biggest worry, said Larry Benham, incident commander for the U.S. Forest Service.

"If the fire comes over into Kyle Canyon, there will be mandatory evacuations," he said Monday night.

Though most of the residents who were on the mountain when the blaze began were not forced to leave, they were encouraged to do so, said Las Vegas police spokesman Jose Montoya.

But authorities said some of their evacuations were mandatory, such as those involving roughly 130 Girl Scouts and 100 youths from the juvenile facility. Residents of 14 or so homes were asked to leave, Blankensop said.

"The fire is not coming up toward them, but the smoke is," Nevada Highway Patrol spokeswoman Angie Wolff said of the campers.

A horde of campers and counselors were taken from the mountain in two buses to the Girl Scout Service Center. A spokesman for the Girl Scouts said the first evacuation was the first in the 54 years that Girl Scouts have been camping on Mount Charleston.

"The camp was never threatened," Juergen Barbusca said.

Campers and parents were rattled by the day's events.

"We were really feeling scared, and we broke down with emotions," 13-year-old Sabrina Pfisterer said. "We didn't actually see the flames, but we could see and smell smoke."

Clark County Fire Department spokesman Bob Leinbach said his agency advised that those who lived or worked at Mount Charleston be allowed to grab some possessions from their homes. But police on state Route 157 were denying all residents entry into Kyle Canyon.

Longtime resident Nachia Hamilton was concerned for her horses, dogs and 87-year-old father.

Hamilton tried to get past the police. When she was rebuffed, she challenged them: "Go get my Dad for me, OK?"

By 4:30 p.m., police relented. Las Vegas police Sgt. Rory Tuggle gathered residents around him near the turnoff, just off U.S. Highway 95.

"We're hoping the wind's going to hold," he told them.

He said they would be allowed to drive up the mountain in a police-led convoy and grab their pets and an item or two, but only if they promised to come back down.

Every one of the residents made the promise.

Don and Sharon Brown have lived in their home for 23 years, and they found themselves with an hour to decide which memories to save.

"I'm just grabbing all that I can," Sharon Brown said, balancing a pile of photographs as she hurried out to the car.

"Oh God, Sharon," her husband said. "Where do you start, and where do you stop?"

An hour earlier, the Browns had been stuck at the bottom of the mountain.

"This is when you wish you would have had more luggage to carry stuff in," Don Brown said when he arrived at his house.

Don Brown, a real estate broker who moved to Mount Charleston in 1981 to avoid the sprawl of Las Vegas, used to be the chief of the town's volunteer fire department.

"We just finished rebuilding this house and moved in a month ago," Amy Julien said. "I am not leaving."

The Julien home burned down in a fire sparked by bad wiring almost three years ago, she said. The couple spent almost that long rebuilding it.

She declared again and again that she was not going to leave, but she admitted that if the fire came down the side of the mountain toward her home, she probably would reconsider.

Most others weren't waiting for the fire to get that close. The Browns said they had relatives in Las Vegas they could stay with.

Don Brown quickly emptied the safe of a few items of jewelry and a couple of guns, but more important were medications because he is diabetic and photos.

"You can't buy back memories," Don Brown said.

Claudia "Tookie" Reed, standing in her living room, described over the phone how the flames seemed to be moving away from her home, how a beautiful day had turned into a dreadful one, how she did not know whether tears were caused by emotions or smoke.

Reed spent an hour packing her car. Because her husband was out of town, a friend helped.

"I got pictures of my family, homemade quilts, my husband's important papers, medicine. Things I couldn't really replace. I even put my dog carrier in so I just put Corky in and drive off at a moment's notice. Furniture, all that sort of thing, you just leave. It's not important when lives are on the line."

Political consultant Gary Gray and his wife, state Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, couldn't get up the mountain to their weekend home. Like many others, they stood outside their cars at U.S. 95 and state Route 157 and watched the smoke.

"We've wanted to get another fire hydrant up there for some time," Giunchigliani said. "But the water pressure just isn't good. We've got to get a better plan in place. There has to be water up there to fight a fire."

Giunchigliani wanted to get sentimental pictures out of the home that her husband built 22 years ago. It wasn't possible.

At the scene Monday were 75-100 firefighters. Officials feared as many as 400 homes might be endangered, and they tapped the federal government for help.

Nevada officials made their request about 3:15 p.m. By 5 p.m., the Federal Emergency Management Agency had approved firefighting money.

By the end of today, fire officials expect to have 200 to 300 local, state, federal and out-of-state firefighters on scene. Also, officials expect to have least two 3,000-gallon tankers added to their arsenal, which will double their air capabilities.

Blankensop estimated the Robber's Fire is the worst to strike Mount Charleston since 1981, when a fire burned about 75 acres.

Wolff, the Highway Patrol spokeswoman, said the accident that started the fire was caused when brakes went out on a truck hauling rocks. The truck caught fire, but its driver, 37-year-old Catherine Teddy, escaped without serious injury, she said.

The fire, at its highest point, burned at an elevation close to 11,000 feet, officials said.

In the best case, Blankensop said, firefighters will be able to rein in the fire within four or five days. In the worst case, officials fear it could persist for two weeks and perhaps rob Southern Nevada of some of its most treasured and rare forests.

"If you enjoy woods and waterfalls and certain kinds of wildlife, this is the only place you can come," Leinbach said.

Review-Journal writers Frank Geary, Paul Harasim and Antonio Planas contributed to this report.