RENO, Nev. —Reno hasn’t seen a winter this dry in more than 120 years. So residents should have been welcoming a forecast that a storm was due to blow across the Sierra Nevada this week.
Instead, as many as 10,000 found themselves fleeing their homes while winds gusting to 82 mph pushed a fire toward them, destroying 26 homes and torching thousands of acres.
As the fire eased Friday, residents faced another threat: The storm was expected to bring high winds and a burst of rain and snow that could cause flash flooding on the charred land.
“The weather poses a significant threat,” said fire Cmdr. Paul Washam. “We’ve got a lot of work to do and a short time to do it. If it rains, we’ll have flood concerns.”
Emergency crews, meanwhile, escorted evacuees in two burn areas to see their houses. Officials said evacuation orders would continue — even in areas unaffected by the fire.
Connie Cryer went to the fire response command post Friday with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Maddie Miramon, to find out whether her house had survived the flames.
“We had to know so we could get some sleep,” Cryer said, adding her house was spared but a neighbor’s wasn’t. She had seen wildfires before, but nothing on this scale.
“There was fire in front of me, fire beside me, fire behind me. It was everywhere,” she said. “I don’t know how more didn’t burn up. It was terrible, all the wind and the smoke.”
The blaze started shortly after noon Thursday and, fueled by the wind gusts, mushroomed to more than 6 square miles before firefighters stopped its surge toward Reno.
Fire Chief Michael Hernandez said an elderly man told authorities Friday that he improperly discarded ashes from his fireplace in the Washoe Valley. He said the man is remorseful and is cooperating with investigators.
The fire held steady around 3,900 acres and was 50 percent contained. Of the roughly 10,000 people ordered to leave their homes, about 2,000 remained under evacuation orders.
