(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Tom Gardner on July 9.)
RENO, Nev. — Firefighters entered another day of triple digit temperatures, choking smoke and difficult terrain on Monday as they attempted to conquer lightning-sparked wildland fires that have blackened more than 240 square miles across northern Nevada.
The 20,500-acre Thomas fire burned into the back yards of a couple dozen homes in Winnemucca, about 170 miles east of Reno, but spared the houses. An electrical substation and a handful of outbuildings were destroyed.
About 1,500 evacuees were allowed to return home on Sunday.
Initial reports by officials that the 32-square-mile blaze had damaged an unknown number of homes proved untrue after crews were able to scour the area, fire information officer Pete Jankowski said Sunday evening.
The fire also shut down Interstate 80, delayed Union Pacific and Amtrak trains and killed livestock. No injuries were reported.
“It was pretty hairy for quite a while and people thought they would go back to nothing,” Humboldt County Undersheriff Curtiss Kull said. “It was a huge wall of flame coming at the homes. It’s amazing that no homes were lost.”
Jamie Thompson, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said a 10-mile-long fire line that had previously been installed around much of the town played a major role in keeping damage to a minimum.
The fire was 10 percent contained Sunday evening and no estimate was provided as far as when full containment would be reached.
Since Friday afternoon, about two dozen lightning-caused wildfires had blackened some 155,000 acres of rangeland across northern Nevada.
One Nevada fire had scorched about 90 square miles, or 58,000 acres, about 25 miles west of Winnemucca and was 20 percent contained Sunday night.
Another blaze near Jackpot along the Idaho line had blackened 92 square miles, or 59,000 acres, and was 15 percent contained.
In western Nevada, a 15,000-acre fire 10 miles south of Silver Springs was 25 percent contained. Full containment of the 23-square-mile fire was expected by Tuesday evening.
The fires near Winnemucca shut down the interstate off and on Saturday. It also delayed an eastbound Amtrak train by 9 1/2 hours and six Union Pacific trains for varying amounts of time.
“They shut down the line because we couldn’t safely go through,” Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said. “There was power on the train and the passengers never deboarded the train. They gave them announcements of what was going on.”
Type 1 fire management teams on Sunday took over command of both the fires near Winnemucca and the Idaho line.