Firefighters Curbing Inferno in Nevada’s Sierra Country

Fire managers began releasing engines and air power from a fire Saturday that had destroyed at least 15 houses, as crews secured containment lines near homes and made progress in the Sierra backcountry to keep the flames out of the Lake Tahoe basin.

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 flames roared up Wednesday, but said Saturday that it 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% contained Saturday, and no longer posed an imminent threat to communities in northwest Carson City or surrounding areas in Washoe Valley, officials said.

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

“They’re getting a very good handle on it,” fire information officer Mark Struble said at a news 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 on Saturday 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 Saturday. “There was too much waiting and seeing.”

Bill Bettridge, whose home in the Kings Canyon area was spared, suggested fire managers provide the community with a timeline on what action was taken when the predawn fire was reported Wednesday.

Fire officials defended their response. They said that gusty winds out of the west had pushed the wildfire in different directions and that the fire -- fueled by trees and brush made brittle by five years of drought -- swept through the area unlike any seen in Carson City’s history.

Nearly 2,000 firefighters remained on the lines Saturday, assisted by more than 120 engines and water tenders, bulldozers and aircraft that included three heavy air tankers.