Nevada’s risk of wildfires ignites proactive efforts

But that dry heat isn’t your friend when it comes to wildfires. It can be accompanied by thunder and lightning, to which dry conditions are susceptible.

One doesn’t have to look far into the past to see the result.

On July 5, lightning sparked two fires within the Nevada National Security Site, the former nuclear test site 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas. The fires consumed more than 6,000 acres.

On June 12, a wildfire started in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area, about three miles west of the Las Vegas Beltway and Summerlin Parkway. It burned about 45 acres before it was contained.

Some people think that a summer storm produces rain, which would put out any tiny fire caused by lightning. But Robbie McAboy, manager of the Red Rock and Sloan canyon national conservation areas, said that might not be so.

“We still have cause to worry,” she said. “In most cases, the rain would extinguish potential fire starts, but as the La Madre fire has shown us, the potential does remain.”

Indeed, fire investigators of the La Madre blaze, northwest of the valley in July, concluded it was caused by lightning from a monsoon storm. The lightning ignited a small, unnoticeable blaze that smoldered for a few days until conditions were again dry enough to ignite the flames.

The state has a notorious history of fires.

The Nevada Fire Safe Council was formed in 1999, a year that saw fire consume nearly 2 million acres of range land in the state. In 2000, another 600,000 acres were burned. More acres burned in Nevada in 1999 and 2000 than in the previous 40 years combined, according to www.wildfireprograms.usda.gov.

The Nevada Fire Safe Council has since taken a proactive approach, focusing on improving the survivability of people and homes. It began informing the public through seminars and televised programs. Its hand-on education efforts included home inspections, and it spearheaded a fuels-mitigation effort that saw underground water tanks installed.

In its first four years, the council established 18 local community Fire Safe chapters with 700 members, completed 10 community Fire Safe plans and held 50 community education and orientation sessions.

The federal government promotes such efforts and has taken its own steps. In 2008, for example, the U.S. Forest Service began standardizing field equipment for fighting fires. It also has coordinated agencies so efforts do not overlap.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, is the nation’s support center for wildland firefighting, with eight different agencies and organizations under its reach. It reports that in 2009, the Southwest saw 1,546 wildfires started by lightning, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center, with humans causing 2,174 instances. The total loss of acreage that year was 210,642.

Ed Smith, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension natural resource specialist and director of Extension’s Living With Fire program, said a fire-adapted community can survive wildfires with little or no assistance from firefighters.

“This is possible because of appropriate building construction, proper vegetation management, thoughtful community planning and a prepared fire service and citizenry,” he said. “Given Nevada’s history of intense wildfires, working to become a FAC should be a goal for many homeowners.”

Stavros Anthony, Las Vegas city councilman, said that just because the valley has no forests abutting homes doesn’t mean one shouldn’t be informed.

“You could be up on Mount Charleston enjoying yourself when wildfire starts, so you need to know what to do,” he said.

Natural Resources Canada offers suggestions for surviving a wildfire: If there’s time, burn an area of your own, then occupy it, so the wildfire passes around you. If that’s not an option, then run if you can, although fleeing by foot is a quick-fix solution.

“Even the fittest individuals are not able to sustain a maximum pace for even a relatively short period of time without being overrun by a rapidly advancing fire,” Dr. Marty Alexander, senior fire behavior researcher with Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Forest Service, said in an article on its website.

Hunkering down in place is another survival tactic, officials said. Lie face down on the ground, your face in the dirt, your hands covering your neck. Having leather gloves is a wise precaution. Be aware that any synthetic material, such as underwear, will melt into your skin.

In some cases, your best survival option may be to run through the fire’s edge and into the burned-out area.

More information on being fire-safe can be found on the Elko Interagency Dispatch Center’s website, http://gacc.nifc.gov/wgbc/dc/nveic/; the National Interagency Fire Coordination Center’s website, www.nifc.gov; and the Fire Prevention Association of Nevada’s website, fpanevada.org.

Contact Summerlin and Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.