Firefighters contain Reno wildfire

RENO, Nev. - Firefighters began heading home Saturday night after containing a 2,300-acre wildland fire in southeast Reno that heavily damaged two homes.

Despite unrelenting winds, officials said the Mira Loma fire was surrounded at 6 p.m. Saturday and should be extinguished by Sunday night.

"The winds are still gusting pretty good - up to 50 mph - but things went very well today," said Brenda Quale-McCleary, a spokeswoman for the fire crews. "The firefighters managed to build 15 miles of line around the fire."

The blaze surrounded more than a dozen homes at one time Friday, but posed no threat to homes Saturday, she added.

One family returned to find all but two rooms of their house destroyed by the blaze. The family was in California when the fire broke out around 1:30 p.m. Friday.

"The important thing is our children are safe. That's more important than property," Marie Macaulay said.

The fire also killed a cow and two dogs as it roared through tinder-dry sagebrush and pinyon-juniper woodlands.

"The terrain is hilly and that meant more hand crews digging out lines instead of bulldozers," Quale-McCleary said.

Two firefighters were hurt, one suffering a knee injury and another a broken arm.

Fire officials downgraded the size of the blaze from 6,000 to 2,300 acres Saturday, saying heavy smoke prevented an accurate measurement of its size the day before.

Several flareups were reported Saturday within burn areas as small juniper-pinyon pockets ignited.

Crews from the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Nevada Division of Forestry, California Department of Forestry, and Reno and Sparks fire departments battled the fire.

Firefighters also maintained a watch Saturday on three other local fires that broke out Friday, one of which was caused by children playing with fireworks as their father watched.

Although the fires were put out Friday, firefighters didn't want to take a chance because of the fierce winds, a spokeswoman said.

Ms. Quale-McCleary said it was a blessing no new wildfires were reported in the Reno area Saturday.

"Our concerns are the same. If another fire were to start, our resources would be stretched thin because of the Mira Loma fire," she said.

archive