Thursday, June 23, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Lightning ignites wildfire season

Vegetation resulting from wet winter fuels blazes, keeps firefighters busy

A helicopter drops water on burning vegetation Wednesday at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Photo by John Gurzinski. Click image for enlargement. Graphic by Mike Johnson. A helicopter fills its bucket with water while fighting a wildfire Wednesday at the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, where the largest fire enveloped about 10 acres. Photo by John Gurzinski.

Lightning strikes sparked 13 wildfires across Southern Nevada on Wednesday, charring more than 4,200 acres of remote mountain terrain.

The blazes, which threatened no structures but continued to burn late Wednesday, signaled the start of what officials expect will be a busier-than-usual wildfire season thanks to a wet winter.

About 200 firefighters worked to contain the blazes on the ground, while at least three aircraft attacked them from the air. With resources at their limit, officials requested the assistance of crews from Oregon and Washington, which are expected to arrive tonight or early Friday.

"We're out there taking aggressive precautions, because it's a lot easier to fight the fire when it's five acres than when it's 2,000," said Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon. "The fuels (vegetation) are really monumental this year, because there's been so much rain."

The largest wildfire, estimated at 2,500 acres, burned on the Desert National Wildlife Refuge about 14 miles north of the intersection of U.S. Highway 93 and Interstate 15.

Not far from that blaze, a fire near Apex charred 700 acres, but was not threatening chemical plants several miles away.

Two more blazes, one near Bunkerville and another near Logandale, burned another 700 acres. And a fire near Goodsprings consumed 2,000 acres.

The top priorities for firefighters on Wednesday, however, were five smaller blazes in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Those fires, which totaled 200 acres late Wednesday, are of greater concern because of their proximity to residences.

The largest fire at Red Rock enveloped about 10 acres of grasses, pines and Joshua trees about a mile from the loop road. Flames and thick white smoke obscured the mountains in the canyon, popular with cyclists, rock climbers and hikers.

About 40 firefighters tried to tame the blaze on the ground, while Forest Service helicopters repeatedly executed water dumps.

Despite those efforts, the fire continued to spread on a day that saw the high temperature at McCarran International Airport reach 99 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. The scattered showers that fell across Southern Nevada provided little help in extinguishing the fires.

National Weather Service forecasters predict hotter temperatures for today, topping out at 104 degrees, with more isolated thunderstorms and dry lightning.

A second helicopter and an airplane carrying fire suppressant, which had successfully contained a fire in the nearby La Madre Mountain Wilderness Area, were assigned to Red Rock in the early afternoon, officials said.

"Our resources are pretty much stretched to the limit right now," U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Robbie McAboy said. "We'll just keep calling in resources until we have it under control."

The nearest structures to the Red Rock fires are in Bonnie Springs, about five miles south. Jim Yates, Bonnie Springs Ranch events director, said Wednesday he had been monitoring the blaze closely since early in the day.

"If the winds shifts this way, it could be here in an hour," he said.

Visitors to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area found the 13-mile scenic loop road closed due to the fire hazard. Many sightseers chose to watch the fire from state Route 159.

Forest Service officials said they believe all the fires in Red Rock were started by lightning strikes between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.

Between early Wednesday morning and 6 p.m., officials had tallied about 680 lightning strikes that hit the ground in Southern Nevada.

Lighting strikes were reported throughout the day across Nevada.

A large fire in the Carson City area continued to draw Forest Service resources that would otherwise be available to battle blazes in Southern Nevada.

More than 300 firefighters battled the fire southeast of Carson City at one point early Wednesday, assisted by two air tankers, three helicopters and four bulldozers. By Wednesday evening, the fire was estimated to be 65 percent contained, and about one-third of those crews were pulled off the lines, fire spokesman Kirk Frosdick said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.