Hundreds evacuated as fire burns to edge of Winnemucca

RENO -- Wildfires stretched across Northern Nevada on Saturday, forcing authorities to evacuate homes and close highways.

A wind-whipped wildfire burned up to the edge of Winnemucca on Saturday night, prompting the mandatory evacuations of hundreds of people and threatening an electrical substation, said U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Jamie Thompson.

The 8,000-acre fire threatened up to eight blocks of homes in and around the town of 8,000, located along Interstate 80 about 170 miles east of Reno, he said.

"It's right up to the south edge of town," Thompson said. "The fire definitely poses a danger to parts of the town. It's certainly got everyone's attention."

About 25 miles to the west of Winnemucca, a 20,000-acre wildfire forced closures of the interstate and the main Union Pacific railroad line on Saturday, he said. The fire also burned an outbuilding at a historic tungsten mine near Imlay.

Since Friday afternoon, about two dozen lightning-caused wildfires have scorched nearly 133 square miles, or 85,000 acres, of rangeland across Northern Nevada.

Another fire had burned 47 square miles, or 30,000 acres, along the Idaho border, said Mike Brown, a BLM spokesman. It was 15 percent contained Saturday night, officials said. A firefighter was treated and released from a hospital in Twin Falls, Idaho, with burns.

Another blaze was fully contained Saturday night after blackening 23 square miles, or 15,000 acres, about five miles southwest of Carlin. It burned two mobile homes and several smaller structures, and shut down a section of Interstate 80 around Carlin for six hours overnight, fire information officer Tracie Winfrey said.

Yet another Nevada fire that was started by lightning Saturday threatened structures and led to the evacuation of campers about 30 miles south of Elko, officials said.

"We're looking at tough firefighting conditions tomorrow as well," Nevada Division of Forestry fire management officer Sam Hicks said.

Firefighters went from home to home Friday to protect structures threatened by the Carlin-area fire. The blaze provided a "textbook example" of the importance of clearing brush and other debris from around homes, Hicks said.

"One house had clear space surrounding it and was easily saved," he said. "Nearby homes without defensible space burned."

Also in Elko County, firefighters were battling an 8,000-acre blaze near the Winecup Ranch about 80 miles northeast of Elko and a 900-acre fire along I-80 about 10 miles west of Elko.

The latter blaze was threatening a facility under construction that will commemorate covered-wagon pioneers who crossed Nevada in the 19th century, Brown said.

Wildfires in Nevada burned more than 1.3 million acres in 2006, two-thirds of which were in Elko County.

Crews also were fighting three new lightning-caused wildfires around Ely, including a 1,000-acre blaze near the historic 19th century mining town of Hamilton.

About 60 miles south of Reno, a 750-acre fire that had posed a potential threat to about 50 homes near Topaz Lake was fully contained Saturday evening.