Wet weather and clouds helped crews increase containment to 43 percent on a wildfire that has burned for 10 days in the mountains northwest of Las Vegas, blowing smoke into the city for several days as it charred almost 44 square miles of steep and rocky terrain near mountain hamlets.
Firefighters prevented the Carpenter 1 fire from damaging more than 400 homes, a rustic hotel and a scenic alpine lodge in the Kyle Canyon area of Mount Charleston. But U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Suzanne Shelp said Friday that the danger was still too great to allow residents who were evacuated last weekend from the Rainbow, Old Town and Echo hamlets to return.
“I wouldn’t say (Kyle Canyon) is out of danger,” Shelp said. “There’s still fire in cliff bands. There’s still a threat.”
In northern Nevada, mop-up and fire line rehabilitation began on the sprawling Bison Fire in the Pine Nut Mountains near Gardnerville and Carson City. Officials said the fire there was 80 percent contained.
Outside Las Vegas, sporadic light rain helped more than 1,300 firefighters limit the spread of the fire to several hundred acres southeast toward the scenic Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, just 17 miles west of the Strip. The 13-mile drive through the area was closed for several hours Thursday.
“The weather helped us yesterday,” Shelp said Friday. “The cloud cover and the humidity helped, and we got about a half-inch of rain in Kyle Canyon and the Angel Peak area.”
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., was scheduled to tour the fire area on Friday, when temperatures in Las Vegas were expected to be in the 90s, with high humidity and a chance of scattered rain showers.
The forecast in the mountains was for temperatures in the 60s, with thunderstorms likely.
Officials remain concerned about heavy rains causing flash floods and sudden landslides carrying fire-damaged trees and loose soil down steep mountain canyons toward firefighters.