15-year-old boys in detention until hearing on wild land fire

GARDNERVILLE — Two 15-year-old boys suspected of starting a wild land fire that burned more than five square miles southeast of Gardnerville will remain in detention until a hearing next week.

District Judge David Gamble denied requests by defense lawyers Thursday to place the teens under house arrest or in the custody of their parents.

Lawyers argued the Ray May fire was an accident . Officials say the teens built a campfire near a makeshift fort and didn’t properly extinguish it.

But prosecutors said one of the boys allegedly admitted starting other fires.

Seven structures have burned in the fire, including one unoccupied dwelling owned by the Bureau of Land Management, a seasonal guest house on private land, and five outbuildings.