A fast-moving wildfire that officials say was started by people tore through the foothills on the northwest edge of Reno, Nevada, over the weekend, destroying homes and pushing authorities to urge some 90,000 residents to leave. At least six people were hurt, according to The Associated Press.
The Hawk Fire ignited on Saturday, August 22, off the Hawk Meadow Trail near the Somersett neighborhood, Fox Weather reported. Within hours it had spread to about 20 square miles (53 square kilometers) across the Peavine Peak area of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, where steep, dry slopes border homes and businesses close to the California line. On Sunday the fire remained uncontained.
Officials said on Sunday that the blaze was human-caused but gave no further details, saying the cause remained under investigation.
Shifting winds and a chaotic night
Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said the fire advanced with unusual speed on Saturday night, leaping past fire engines and making it hard for crews to reach hot spots as residents tried to drive out. Changing winds pushed the flames in several directions at once. “It was extremely confusing,” Balaam said, according to the AP.
Several structures were destroyed. The six injured included three civilians and three first responders, officials said.
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve urged people to leave without delay. “If you are told to evacuate, please don’t wait,” Schieve said on Saturday, as quoted by Fox Weather. “Structures have already been burned in this fire, and your life is more important than the building.”
Evacuation zones reach the university
About 42,000 residents were under orders to evacuate as the “GO NOW” zone grew to the edge of the University of Nevada, and roughly 45,000 more were in a neighboring warning zone, the AP reported. Officials asked everyone in both areas to go and to plan on being away for several days, because stronger and shifting winds were forecast to make the fire even harder to predict.
The university, where many of its 20,000 undergraduates moved into campus housing over the weekend, was just outside the evacuation zone on Sunday. Two hospitals moved patients out, and the sheriff said his office was watching closely to decide whether the county jail would need to be evacuated.
Washoe County opened the Reno-Sparks Convention Center as a shelter, though pets were not allowed inside; small and large animals were directed to two separate sites. The American Red Cross of Northern Nevada also opened a shelter, and Reno casinos offered evacuees discounted hotel rooms.
State of emergency
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency in Washoe County. He mobilized the Nevada National Guard to assist with two helicopter crews for aerial firefighting and 60 troops to help police protect evacuated neighborhoods, the AP reported. About 800 fire personnel were assigned to the blaze.
The fire also disrupted travel and power. Parts of U.S. Route 395, a major north-south highway, were closed. Reno-Stead Airport was shut to general aviation but remained open to firefighting and military aircraft, Fox Weather reported. Nearly 10,000 customers in Washoe County lacked electricity on Sunday, down from about 60,000 a day earlier.
Families lose homes
Cari Kieffer told the AP that a video shared online showed her family’s house completely burned, with only a charred basketball hoop left standing. She had been at her son’s football game on Saturday when she learned the home was inside the evacuation area. A fire-tracking app the family relied on was lagging far behind the actual fire line, she said.
Kieffer said she woke up on Sunday and began to cry for her children. “We lost all our stuff. Everything we own is gone,” she said.
Jaida Hargrove said her grandfather, Rick Arrate, who lived alone on Peavine Mountain, was forced off the mountain along with firefighters who had been trying to protect the area. “They all thought it would be OK,” she said. “And then, in about 30 minutes, the winds just changed and it came way too fast.”
David Barb returned from a hunting trip to find his taxidermy shop destroyed, though his nearby house appeared to have survived after landscaping workers cut a fire break. “I’m kind of devastated, but thank God everyone’s safe,” he said.
A dangerous fire season
Fifteen new fires started across Nevada on Saturday alone. Months of dry weather and a record lack of snow last winter across the American West have left vegetation primed to burn. Earlier in August, wildfires in eastern Washington state forced 60,000 people to evacuate around Spokane, and three fires north of Reno drove more than 13,000 residents from their homes, according to the AP.
Reno, home to more than 280,000 people, is Nevada’s largest city outside the Las Vegas area.
