Nevada Hoping Storm Will Douse Fires

Nevada continued to endure lightning-sparked wildfires Wednesday, but an approaching storm held the potential to douse some of the flames.

About 140,000 acres of the state have been charred since the fires began over the weekend. Of 33 large fires being tracked by the National Interagency Fire Center, 10 were in Nevada.

Three consecutive days of high temperatures, low humidity and dry lightning were forecast to give way overnight to a possibility of heavy rain. A flash-flood watch was posted for the hard-hit Reno-Carson City area.

“We’ve got a lot of cloud cover, the humidity has come up, and the temperatures are a lot cooler,” said Kathy Jo Pollock, a spokeswoman for the fire management team in Carson City.

A fire that began Monday just east of Carson City near the historic Pony Express trail, was estimated Wednesday at 5,000 acres. About 200 homes were threatened Tuesday, but most residents who chose to leave were returning.

A blaze of more than 78,000 acres burned toward a subdivision in northwestern Elko but stopped 1 1/2 miles short at a greenbelt. No one was evacuated, and the fire was estimated Wednesday night to be 20% contained.

No injuries had been reported, and no structures had burned in the Nevada fires.

In Arizona, most of the 200 employees stranded on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim by a wildfire were escorted out of the national park Wednesday, a day after about 800 stranded tourists were taken out. About 30 employees will remain indefinitely to maintain operations, park spokeswoman Maureen Oltrogge said.

Zion National Park remained open Wednesday, despite the closure of nine of the Utah park’s hiking trails because of a wildfire. It had burned about 17,630 acres -- most of it inside the park -- since it started Saturday. The fire was 40% contained.