RENO, Nev. — The estimated number of homes destroyed in a wind-fueled wildfire more than doubled Saturday to a total of 32, but Gov. Brian Sandoval said it is a miracle scores more weren’t lost.
A re-evaluation Saturday of the 2,000-acre burn found much more destruction and damage than initially reported, said Reno Fire Chief Mike Hernandez.
The unusual, out-of-season blaze spread by gale-force winds and ripped through the Sierra foothills early Friday, forcing the evacuation of nearly 10,000 people. Most started returning to their homes Saturday afternoon.
“This was not only a wild land, urban-interface type fire,” Hernandez said, “it was also a metro fire where we had homes that were actively burning in densely populated areas.”
Many families “had to leave in the middle of the night with very, very limited possessions, and they are coming back to devastation, to nothing,” he said. “So our hearts and prayers go out to those families.”
The governor said after a helicopter tour of the area Saturday that although the loss of homes was tragic, the 400 firefighters on the lines are heroes for saving more than 4,000 houses that could have burned in the blaze, which investigators suspect was started by arcing power lines.
“When you see something like that, you can’t help but be struck by the awesome and random power of nature,” Sandoval said about the blackened path of the fire that snaked along the edge of the foothills, sometimes burning one home to the ground while neighboring houses on either wide went untouched.
“It is nothing short of a miracle the amount of homes that have been saved,” he said.
Hernandez said there’s no official cause yet, but all signs point to the power lines.
He said investigators ruled out the possibility that teenage partyers or a homeless campfire was to blame. The fire was 80 percent contained Saturday and should be fully mopped up by the middle of the week, fire officials said.
Numbers
32 Houses that burned in the 2,000-acre blaze
4,000+ Houses that could have burned but were saved by firefighters
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