Worst Sierra Fire of Year Chars 3,000 Acres of Brush

The largest brush fire of the season in the eastern Sierra had scorched more than 3,000 acres by late Thursday, as fire crews struggled over steep terrain to halt the blaze’s advance.

Mike King, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman, called the blaze the worst Sierra fire this year. He said 560 firefighters were working along a 2 1/2-mile front in an effort to keep the blaze from spreading north into Nevada, where denser brush and undergrowth would refuel the flames.

Firefighters were aided by cooler temperatures and lighter winds on Thursday, a day after gusts to 30 m.p.h. fanned the fire into an inferno that blackened more than 500 acres in less than three hours in sparsely populated Alpine County.

The flames destroyed the 50-year-old Fredericksburg school, which had been used most recently as a church, and leveled two small barns and some outbuildings and corrals on ranches, although firefighters were able to save the main buildings.

Flames Moving

King said no structures were being threatened on Thursday, as the fire moved west up the mountains into heavier forest.

CeCe Stewart, another Forest Service spokeswoman, said the fire was about 40% contained late Thursday but added that could change with any increase in the winds, which were between 5 and 15 m.p.h.

While the fire burned brush and small trees on Forest Service land around Fredericksburg, 10 miles south of Gardnerville, Nev., and just south of the California-Nevada state line, King said it started on private property. He added that the fire was man-caused but said it had not been determined exactly how it began.

Crews from the Forest Service, the Nevada Division of Forestry, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and nearby Douglas County, Nev., were battling the flames in the steep foothills.