Wind-driven Nevada blaze 50 percent contained

By Sandra Chereb
The Associated Press

DAVID MCNEW / GETTY IMAGES A horse is moved from the Rancho los Hernandez ranch as the Foothill Fire takes off yesterday near Santa Clarita, Calif. The Foothill Fire is one of the newest of some 200 wildfires that have been reported in California and the Southwest in the past two days.

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Meanwhile, officials broadened their investigation of the fire's cause. They initially said they suspected the blaze was started by teenagers in Kings Canyon the day before the fire erupted Wednesday, but said yesterday the fire could have started last weekend and smoldered undetected for days.

The wind-driven blaze, which scorched nearly 7,600 acres, also destroyed a business and 25 outbuildings. It was 50 percent contained yesterday, and no longer posed an imminent threat to northwest Carson City or surrounding areas in Washoe Valley, officials said.

Fire officials said the blaze, with good weather, could fully be contained by Tuesday.

"They're getting a very good handle on it," fire-information officer Mark Struble said at a press briefing. "If we can hold these lines for another 24 hours, it'll be very, very good."

Hundreds of evacuees were allowed back home late Friday, but some of them yesterday questioned whether firefighters could have done more to stop the blaze in its early stages.

"This atrocity should never have happened," Washoe Valley resident Betty Kelly said at a town hall meeting yesterday. "There was too much waiting and seeing."

Fire officials defended their response, as did some residents.

"They moved so fast to try to control it," said "Mike" Gutter, who watched the fire unfold. But the afternoon wind "flattened it out like a pancake and spread it in all directions," she said.

Gusty winds out of the west pushed the wildfire in different directions. Fueled by trees and brush brittle by five years of drought, the fire swept through the area unlike any seen in Carson City's history, officials said.

Nearly 2,000 firefighters remained on the lines yesterday. They were assisted by more than 120 engines and water tenders, bulldozers and aircraft that included three heavy air tankers.
 
Meanwhile, in California, hundreds of people were forced to evacuate yesterday when a wildfire broke out in northern Los Angeles County. The 2,100-acre blaze threatened Sand Canyon, a community of more than 100 homes, Placerita Canyon and the Placerita Nature Center.

About 750 firefighters were battling the blaze with water-dropping helicopters. No homes or structures had been destroyed, officials said.

Another fire in the area shifted away from two communities, allowing hundreds of residents to return to their homes. The fire in Lake Hughes had blackened 15,988 acres, but was about 54 percent contained, officials said.

The blazes were among dozens of California wildfires that burned more than 31,000 acres during the week. Karen Terrill of the California Department of Forestry said her department found 200 fires in 48 hours.