RENO, Nevada, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Firefighters logged major gains on Monday against a wind-driven blaze that threatened the city of Reno, Nevada, over the weekend, destroying dozens of houses and chasing tens of thousands of people from their homes.
As of Monday, fire crews had managed to carve containment lines around 27% of the Hawk Fire, which erupted on Saturday near Nevada’s third-most-populous city and raced through tinder-dry grass, brush and forest into residential areas.
Within 48 hours, the blaze had scorched more than 15,000 acres (6,070 hectares) on the outskirts of Reno, a hub of high-tech industry, gambling and outdoor resorts in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range near the California border.
It was the second major wildfire to strike Nevada’s Truckee River valley area in recent weeks.
No fatalities have been reported, but four civilians and three emergency personnel suffered minor burns in the initial hours of the blaze on Saturday, authorities said.
Chief Richard Edwards of the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District told a press conference that at least 32 homes had gone up in flames, with a half dozen more damaged. The tally of property losses is expected to climb as damage-assessment teams canvass more of the fire zone in the coming days, he said.
NEIGHBORHOOD IN FLAMES
Among the ill-fated property owners was Luke Opperman, 47, a civil engineer who lost his family’s home of nearly 20 years when flames swept their suburban Reno neighborhood.
Opperman, who was away camping at the time, said his wife and two teenage daughters hastily packed up three cars and two trailers with clothes, vital belongings and the family’s chickens, goats, dog and cats, then sped off to safety as the fire closed in around them.
The outpouring of support from co-workers and friends, some of whom had already started a GoFundMe page for his family, was overwhelming, Opperman recalled. “That’s what made me break down,” he said.
Devastation to the area as a whole was staggering, he said, with six of his neighbors also losing their homes. He estimated as many as 20 houses had burned up in his immediate community, which lies adjacent to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.
“It’s more than just a house; it’s your neighborhood, it’s your community,” Opperman told Reuters, his voice cracking with emotion, in a telephone interview, adding he had yet to fully contemplate what happens next.
“I think it’s baby steps,” he said. “I don’t know what’s happening at the end of this week.”
THREAT DIMINISHES
As the fire raged out of control over the weekend, wind-whipped flames roared up canyon slopes and over fire trucks while authorities issued evacuation notices urging an estimated 90,000 residents to leave their homes immediately or get set to flee.
By Monday afternoon, the fire threat had diminished enough for officials to lift evacuations in some areas, but Sheriff Darin Balaam said 23,000 residents were still displaced under “go-now” orders, with another 40,000 advised to be ready to go at a moment’s notice.
More than 900 firefighters remained assigned to the Hawk Fire on Monday, Edwards said, including personnel from 15 U.S. states as well as crews from Australia and New Zealand who were part of teams dispatched from abroad to help battle dozens of blazes raging across the Western U.S. in recent weeks.
Officials said the Hawk Fire was human-caused, but whether it was intentionally set or ignited by accident remained under investigation.
(Reporting by Fred Greaves in Reno, Nevada; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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