BLM official sees progress against wildfires

RENO -- A top official of the federal Bureau of Land Management says he is optimistic about the gains being made on thousands of acres of wildland burning in eastern Nevada, but anxious about the forecast of new thunderstorms next week in the paper-dry area.

"The biggest concern is not the fires which are burning today which are becoming a better situation," Henri Bosson, the BLM's national deputy director for operations, said on Saturday. "This is going to be touch and go for the next two months or so."

Bosson spent two days flying over eastern Nevada, where lightning sparked more than two dozen fires that have blackened an area one-third the size of Rhode Island.

"I've had a really good chance to tour all the fires north of Elko and I saw some very large fires with some still burning," he said.

Two wildfires that prompted the evacuations of two tiny towns in southwest Idaho and Northern Nevada combined on Saturday to form a 600-square-mile blaze called the Murphy Complex.

Firefighters, aided by air tankers and helicopters, were trying to protect some 60 homes, 20 commercial buildings and 35 outbuildings in the sparsely populated area around Murphy Hot Springs, Idaho, and Jarbidge in Nevada, said Brock Astle of the Bureau of Land Management.

"With the erratic winds and that sort of stuff, they're doing the best they can," he said.

The lightning-caused fire, burning mostly grass and sagebrush, was about 15 percent contained, he said.

Bosson, speaking from an airport in Battle Mountain, near where the 122,000-acre Antelope Complex exploded late Friday, Bosson said personnel and aircraft were being directed to central and eastern Nevada, where a quarter of the nation's wildfires were located.

"We are releasing them now so we can get them here" in anticipation of renewed lightning, Bosson said.

In addition to the Antelope fire, other major blazes are the 72,500-acre Red House Complex south and west of Elko, the 47,857-acre fire northwest of Wells, the 59,578-acre Winecup complex northeast of Wells, the 47,857-acre Hepworth complex north of Wells, the 23,000-acre Kelly Creek fire southeast of Paradise Valley and the 9,000-acre Barrel Springs fire northwest of Winnemucca.

All other active fires in Nevada were 5,000 acres or less.

In neighboring Utah, a fire in the backcountry of Zion National Park in southwest Utah had burned more than 9,400 acres, or nearly 15 square miles. It was about 5 percent contained on Saturday.

Evacuations were ordered and some structures were threatened, although numbers were not immediately available.