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Wildfire tears through Reno; 10,000 evacuated

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Author Topic: Wildfire tears through Reno; 10,000 evacuated  (Read 109 times)
akfools
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« on: November 19, 2011, 02:01:12 pm »

RENO, Nev. - A firefighter suffered first and second-degree burns and an elderly man died of a heart attack while trying to flee a sudden wildfire that spread through the Nevada Sierra foothills and roared into Reno on Friday, blanketing upscale houses, horse pastures and mountain roads in smoke plumes, amber flames and flying embers.

Authorities said the worst was likely over, but warned a change in the furious northern winds could refuel the sprawling fire that sent thousands of families fleeing their homes in the middle of the night and blanketed the region's mountain roads in flames. At least 25 properties were damaged and destroyed.

Fire Chief Mike Hernandez said flames still endanger some areas, but firefighters had largely contained the blaze that sent nearly 10,000 people from their homes in the middle of the night.

"We are actually backtracking and going over areas that have burned and extinguishing hot spots," Hernandez said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has declared the fire a major disaster.

Roughly 100 Nevada National Guard members were assisting local law enforcement in checking homes and keeping people out of the evacuated area. Health officials urged residents to stay inside and reduce physical activity, warning that the dust and smoke were adding to pollution levels in the affected regions and downwind neighborhoods.

Sixteen people were hospitalized, many for smoke inhalation. A 74-year-old man died of a heart attack while trying to leave his home.

The cause of the blaze wasn't known, but a downed power line or homeless encampments in the area might be to blame, Hernandez said. He said the region is also a popular area for teenagers who might have started the fire to stay warm.

Growing snow flurries and dropping temperatures late Friday afternoon stroked hopes that the remaining showers of ember and ash would die down quickly.

At least 400 firefighters from as far as 260 miles away flocked to Reno early Friday as multiple fires roared from the Sierra Nevada foothills in northwestern Nevada and spread to the valley floor. Police went house-to-house, pounding on doors and urging residents to evacuate in the dark of the night.

"The whole mountain was on fire," said Dick Hecht, who said when he escaped from his home with his wife, it was so windy he could barely stand. "It was so smoky, you couldn't hardly see."

The couple tried to return to their home before morning, but they were turned back by high winds and erupting flames. As they made their way back down the mountain roads, flames burned less than 40 yards from their vehicle.

Gusts of up to 60 mph grounded firefighter helicopters and made it difficult for firefighters to approach Caughlin Ranch, the affluent subdivision bordering pine-forested hills where the fire likely began after 12:30 a.m.

The strong winds combined with area's dry terrain helped the fire spread from 400 acres to 2,000, or more than 3 square miles. Firefighters said their efforts spared 4,000 homes, but that the disaster would likely cost multi-millions of dollars. The gusts were comparable to the Santa Ana winds that often aggravate and spread wildfires in the hills surrounding Los Angeles, officials said.

"The wind is horrific," said Reno spokeswoman Michele Anderson. "We just watched a semi nearly blow over on the freeway."

Evacuated families were shaken up by the fire.

"I thought it was an earthquake," Darian Thorp told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "We could see it from our window. ... Then I could see it from both sides. It was all around us."

Reno resident Kathy Harrah said she was panicking when an officer knocked on her door in the middle of the night. She ordered her son rip a computer out of a wall and load up household items in their truck as they evacuated.

"I was watching the fire all night," Harrah told the Reno-Gazette-Journal. "I didn't know it was going to get this bad."

John and Maggie Givlin were among those watching a television at the shelter at Reno High School Friday morning, scanning the screen for details on whether the home they left behind was safe. They already were preparing to flee when a police officer knocked on their door at about 1:30 a.m.

"I smelled smoke and got out of bed and the electricity was out," said John Givlin, a retired civil engineer who has lived there about eight years. "I looked out the front window and saw the glow over the hill before us."

He and his wife made their way out of their home with a flashlight. Outside, flames billowed in every direction.

More than 150 people had filled two shelters set up at area high schools by midmorning.

"The people are in a state of shock and are hanging in there," Gov. Brian Sandoval said.

More than 4,000 NV Energy customers lost power as poles and electrical wires were scorched and knocked down, said spokeswoman Faye Andersen. Utility workers were not being allowed into the fire area.

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell said evacuees could start returning to their homes at noon Saturday. Cashell said a number of local hotel-casinos were offering discounted rooms to displaced residents.

"These next 24 hours, with all the power lines down and everything else, it is still a very, very dangerous area," he said.

School buses were on standby to help with evacuations. At least 90 schools were closed for the day to clear the roads of school traffic and make way for emergency workers.

The U.S. Postal Service suspended delivery to the area for the day and the state high school athletic association moved its football playoffs from Friday night to Monday.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57327823/wildfire-tears-through-reno-10000-evacuated/
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« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2011, 08:56:55 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/officials-32-homes-destroyed-reno-fire-223228156.html

Officials say 32 homes destroyed in Reno fire

..RENO, Nev. (AP) — Austin and Sarah Hardage's home is burned to its foundations — the sad aftermath of an early-morning conflagration that raged through an area of southwest Reno.

But in a twist that played out time and time again across the 2,000-acre fire, neighboring houses on either side were untouched by flames.

"It's just amazing — Murphy's Law," Austin Hardage said Saturday afternoon. "It didn't even touch either house on either side. It doesn't make any sense."

Their home is among the 32 that were destroyed by the unusual, out-of-season blaze that spread by gale force winds Friday and ripped through the Sierra foothills.

Gov. Brian Sandoval was among a number of leaders who opined on Saturday that it was a miracle that scores more homes weren't lost.

"This was not only a wild land, urban-interface type fire, it was also a metro fire where we had homes that were actively burning in densely populated areas," Reno Fire Chief Mike Hernandez said.

Many families "had to leave in the middle of the night with very, very limited possessions and they are coming back to devastation, to nothing," he said. "So our hearts and prayers go out to those families."

Austin Hardage explained how they awoke to a smoky, orange glow through the windows about 2 a.m. Friday.

With flames speeding down the hillside behind the Hardages' house, they decided to grab some clothes and the pets and flee, joining nearly 10,000 other southwest Reno residents in an evacuation.

"Three computers, two dogs and two rabbits. That's pretty much all we have now," Austin Hardage said, his voice giving way to some tears.

"I'm sorry," he told a reporter. "It hadn't really hit me until I start talking about it."

The house itself in an upscale gated community near Lakeridge Golf Course .

"It's all just glass and twisted metal," he said.

A few miles away, Tim Sweeney ended up on the good side of a similar situation.

"The house directly south of me burned completely down," he said. But Sweeney's house — with stucco walls and a concrete tile roof — suffered relatively minor damage when blowing embers got underneath the tiles and started burning in the attic.

"Just about everything around the perimeter of my house is gone," Sweeney said.

"Luckily, there was no real damage to the house except where they had to cut holes in the ceiling," he said.

Sweeney, an architect who has lived there 25 years, said the flames had gotten within 100 feet of his home atop Windy Hill when he "finally had to get out of there." Reno firefighters showed up about the same time, he said.

"Those guys just busted their butts fighting that fire. They first thought they were not going to be able to save it," Sweeney said.

Sandoval said after a helicopter tour of the area Saturday that while the loss of homes was tragic, the 400 firefighters on the lines are heroes for saving more than 4,000 houses that could have burned in the blaze investigators suspect was started by arcing power lines.

"When you see something like that, you can't help but be struck by the awesome and random power of nature," Sandoval said about the blackened path of the fire that snaked along the edge of the foothills.

"It is nothing short of a miracle the amount of homes that have been saved," he said. "We're right around the corner from Thanksgiving and I think we in this community have a lot to be thankful for."

Hernandez said there's no official cause yet, but all signs point to the power lines. He said investigators ruled out the possibility that teenage partiers or a homeless campfire was to blame. The fire was 80 percent contained Saturday and should be fully mopped up by the middle of next week, fire officials said.

Austin Hardage said he's been offered some replacement text books for his last four weeks of his senior year in search of an engineering degree at the University of Nevada, Reno. But his notes burned in the fire, as did a number of homework assignments.

"And I was all caught up," he said. "I had to email my professor to say I wasn't going to be there because my house was on fire."

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