wildfire

High pressure will continue to provide unseasonably hot temperatures through Tuesday with areas of wildfire smoke and haze and a chance of afternoon thunderstorms, according to the National Weather Service in Reno.

University of Nevada Cooperative Extension presents a free Safety Day event for children and their families. The event, held in partnership with local businesses, organizations and agencies, is 8 a.m.-noon, Saturday, Sept. 9, at Mills Park, 111 E. William St. in Carson City.

UPDATE 11:30AM: Acccording to the National Wildfire Coordinating Group web site provided by the Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center, the Slinkard Fire has officially burned more than 7,880 acres and is currently about 20 percent contained at this hour.
More than 600 firefighting personnel are on scene, including 15 crews, four helicopters, 56 engines, two bulldozers, and 11 water tenders.
U.S. Highway 395 is reported to be open in both directions. However, both the Nevada and California highway patrols remain on scene to monitor the situation.
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The Slinkard Fire near Topaz Lake has grown to about 9,000 acres in size, but firefighters have achieved at least 10 percent containment on the blaze as of about 9 a.m. Saturday morning, according updated reports from all three major television news stations in Reno.

UPDATE FRIDAY 2:15PM: Voluntary evacuations are underway west of Topaz, Calif., according to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. Sierra Front reports the fire, believed to have started by lightning on Tuesday, has burned an estimated 7,200 acres and is zero percent contained as of Friday afternoon.

Fire crews are battling the Tungsten Fire east of Fallon that started Monday afternoon and was sending smoke into the Dayton area.

Author David C. Antonucci will speak on his book "Fairest Picture: Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe" at the Dangberg Home Ranch Historic Park on Saturday, August 12, 10 a.m. In 1861, Samuel Clemens, the man who would become Mark Twain, hiked to Lake Tahoe to stake a claim for a timber ranch.

He spent many blissful days on the Lake but carelessly allowed his campfire to escape, creating a spectacular wildfire. He later wrote about his experiences in his 1872 memoir, Roughing It.

UPDATE WEDNESDAY 11:50AM: The Whites Fire remains at 60 acres and 20 percent containment. The fire is southwest of Reno on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s Carson Ranger District near the Whites Creek Trailhead just north of Whites Creek. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
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UPDATE 6:12PM: A 60-acre fire is actively burning on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s Carson Ranger District, near the Whites Creek Trailhead, south west of Reno. Eight structures in the Logan Meadows area may be threatened. Traffic is closed to Timberline Drive, except for local residents. There is no access to the Thomas Creek and Whites Creek Trailheads.
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Carson City Fire Department is one of several agencies called Tuesday afternoon to a wildfire in the area Mount Rose Highway and Timberline south of Reno in which structures are threatened.

Fire officials on the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest would like to remind the public that the fire danger level is still high. Human-caused wildfires remain a major concern heading into the upcoming weekend.

Fire crews from around the region responded to lightning sparked fires early Monday morning to the south, north and east of Carson City. Thunderstorms are expected through Tuesday possibly into Wednesday for northeastern California and western Nevada.

Monsoonal moisture will begin to move northward from low pressure off the West Coast bringing increased chances for isolated thunderstorms to Carson City and western Nevada on Sunday and into early next week, according to the National Weather Service.

Wildfire smoke from the Detwiler Fire in Mariposa County, Calif. remains across Carson City, Douglas and Lyon County as well as into Pershing, Churchill, and Mineral counties.

Carson City Health and Human Services has been receiving several calls about the impact of the smoke from the Detwiler Fire in Mariposa County, Calif.

Sometimes Nevada can be, well, uniquely Nevada. Perhaps this’s why, in this major fire season and after great amounts of snow and flooding from the melt, a state of emergency was declared. A state of emergency because recreational cannabis dispensaries are running out of weed!

A firefighting brush engine from Carson City Fire Department was called Friday afternoon for mutual aid to a wildfire burning along Highway 395 south of Cold Springs near the Nevada/California border.

UPDATE 8:08PM: According to the Lyon County Facebook page, the Fort Churchill Fire near Dayton is 200 acres with 95 percent containment. No structures threatened or damaged. Power may be disrupted in the area.
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Wildfires have been reported this evening in the Dayton and Silver Springs/Stagecoach areas, with Carson City Fire Department being asked to help as part of a mutual aid effort, according to dispatch.

UPDATE 2:45PM: Both westbound lanes now open at Highway 50 Spooner from the valley side. The Spooner fire has been extinguished. The cause is under investigation.
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UPDATE 1:50PM: As firefighters were being released from the fire on Spooner, Carson City fire department was called to a fully involved vehicle fire in the area of Golf Club Drive and Sierra Highlands on the valley side of Highway 50 and Spooner.
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‘We hold these truths to be self-evident…’ With those few powerful words, the Declaration of Independence set a few east coast colonies on a path to becoming ‘the land of the free, and the home of the brave.’ Less than 100 years later, the great ‘Battle Born’ state of Nevada would join the fold. Let us celebrate our great country today with family, friends, and neighbors. You’ll find fireworks displays in Carson City, Virginia City, Reno, Sparks, and both the North and South shores of Lake Tahoe.

Carson City Fire Department, Sheriff's Office and Parks, Recreation and Open Space officials appear in a video produced Friday that explains a shooting ban on city, state and federal land due to extreme fire danger.

UPDATE 1:21PM: The fire at the Carson City landfill has been extinguished.
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UPDATE 12:57 p.m.— The fire has been contained, with the help of a water truck that was on the scene.
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Carson City Fire Department was called Friday afternoon to a brush fire in the Brunswick Canyon area. The fire is producing smoke in the area, according to dispatch.

The Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Nevada Division of Forestry have announced the implementation of shooting restrictions for all state and federally owned lands. In addition, the Carson City Fire Department has now implemented shooting restrictions on city and privately owned lands including “open space lands” within Carson City.

Due to the risk of wildfires, the Carson Ranger District will be instituting a temporary shooting restriction. This restriction will go into effect on Friday, June 30, and remain in effect until Saturday, Sept. 30 or until conditions change, the U.S. Forest Service announced Thursday.

Gusty winds and low humidity expected to arrive Monday has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a Red Flag Warning for Carson City, western Nevada and extreme northeastern California.

UPDATE 2:17PM: From Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch: Firefighters stopped forward progress of the Coleman Fire at around 10 acres. Resources are in the mop-up stage.
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UPDATE 1:56PM: While the Kit Kat Fire burning east of Carson City near Mound House has been contained with 2.8 acres having burned, firefighters were called to the Silver Springs, Stagecoach area for a two-acre fire, called the Coleman Fire, according to Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center. The wildfire is burning near Coleman Drive. It was reported at 1:13 p.m.

On June 24, 2007, embers from an illegal and abandoned campfire ignited the most destructive fire in the history of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

According to Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch, the Hollywood Fire has grown to 5,500 acres as of late Tuesday morning. The Evans Fire is at 300 acres and 25 percent contained.
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A brush fire that began Monday night southeast of Pyramid Lake has grown to an estimated 300 acres, according to Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center, which monitors fires in the region.

The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest would like to remind surrounding communities to be aware of the increased chance of wildfire during critical fire weather conditions resulting from high winds and low humidity.

Gov. Brian Sandoval expressed his gratitude Thursday to the Nevada Legislature for responding to his requests as outlined in his State of the State address in January of this year.

Ray Johnson, Fire Prevention Technician on Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, was recently awarded the 2017 Bronze Smokey Bear Award. Johnson received this award for the work accomplished during his 24-year career educating the public about the dangers, causes, and prevention measures associated with wildland fire.

UPDATE 955PM: From Douglas County: The Topaz Fire is in mop up status at the present time. The fire burned 8 acres within the Topaz Subdivision just south of the Topaz Lodge in Southern Douglas County.
Highway 395 was closed during initial fire attack operations. The highway is now open but motorist are urged to proceed with caution through the area. One out building was damaged in the fire and no structures were lost. Approximately 30 to 40 homes were threatened at one time. Volunteer evacuations are still in place.

With a record mountain snowpack changing to a robust, above normal, significant fire potential, wildland firefighting agencies are gearing up for another fire season and the University of Nevada, Reno is ramping up its AlertTahoe HD/4K fire camera system, which overlooks and helps protect dozens of western mountain ranges and hundreds of square miles of Nevada’s Great Basin.