Firefighters battle blaze, bombs, rattlesnakes

RENO, Nev. - Unexploded bombs and rattlesnakes made for some tricky footwork, but firefighters were getting the upper hand Sunday on a pair of fires that burned more than 35,000 acres near Reno and a Navy air base to the east.

About 500 firefighters have almost completely surrounded a huge 20,000-acre wildfire in the steep canyons about 8 miles east of Reno. A second, smaller, fire near Fallon was also mostly contained Sunday.

A third fire in the northeast corner of the state started by lightning eight days ago was finally fully contained and expected to be under control late Sunday after burning more than 32,000 acres of rangeland along the Nevada-Utah border.

The Reno fire has been burning quickly through highly flammable cheat grass, a knee-high dry grass that is thick in the foothills around Reno.

The steep terrain has made it impossible to get bulldozers and heavy equipment near the fire and officials are using hand crews and air support to battle the fire.

"Rattlesnakes have been seen along the fire line and in the vicinity of the fire," Forest Service spokeswoman Jocelyn Biro said Sunday.

Fire crews lit a series of back fires early Sunday to help cut off the primary flames and by midday the fire was 85 percent contained, or surrounded by fire breaks.

Officials expected it to be fully contained by Sunday evening and hoped to have the fire completely out by Monday night.

"We have a pretty good handle on the fire," Biro said.

Meanwhile, fire crews expected to completely contain a 15,500-acre fire Sunday near the Fallon Naval Air Station that was sparked by bomber training runs on Thursday.

As many as 500 firefighters spent a week battling the 32,000-acre fire that burned on both sides of the Nevada-Utah border. Some of the those crews were being sent to the Reno fire on Sunday, Forest Service spokeswoman Sharon Sweeney said.

"All of northern Nevada is very, very dry," she said.

The Reno area fire, which broke out Friday afternoon, came within a half mile of Interstate 80 on Saturday, causing curious motorists to pull over and watch the fire cresting a nearby mountain and watch the air tankers dip into the Truckee River to fill water buckets. The interstate remained open.

In addition to three Air National Guard helicopters, two air tankers were dumping retardant on the fire.

The fire has burned huge areas of sagebrush, juniper pine and cheat grass. No buildings have been burned and none were immediately threatened on Sunday.

The Reno and Fallon fires were caused by humans and investigations were continuing to determine whether they might have been set deliberately.

The Bureau of Land Management issued a reminder Sunday that campfires and smoking have been banned across the millions of acres of BLM land in western Nevada since July 7 due to extreme fire threats.

"It's hot and dry out there and a lot of fuel has built up over the past few wetter-than-average years," said Leonard Wehking, fire management officer for the BLM's field office in Carson City.

"You've just got to be extra careful about things like campfires, smoking, welding, fireworks and any use of firearms on public lands," he said.

Elsewhere, about 325 firefighters almost completely contained the Sand Springs fire, which has burned about 15,500 acres about 30 miles southeast of Fallon. That fire was touched off Thursday by Navy bombers dropping ordnance on a training mission.

It should be completely contained Sunday evening, according to Heidi Netzler, a spokeswoman for the federal interagency command post working the fire.

No structures were threatened but several $1 million Navy communications sites were in the area.

The Navy said that fire started from a live ordnance drop. Fires on the 21,000-acre bombing range are not uncommon and usually are left to burn because of concerns about unexploded ordnance, NAS Fallon spokeswoman Anne McMillin said.

But this one became a concern when it moved onto BLM land.

"We couldn't get in there right away because of all the live ordnance on the ground," said Bob Knutson of the Western Great Basin fire center in Reno.

BLM spokesman Bob Stewart said the agency doesn't send fire personnel within 1.5 miles of any Navy bombing range "so it had a good, running start."

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