Couple spots ‘fire tornado’ at Nevada-California border
A fire burning near the Nevada-California border turned into an even scarier scene when a tornado touched down at the scene Saturday afternoon.
Nevada couple Jordan and KateLynn Hewlett spotted the tornado in the distance off of U.S. Highway 395 as they were driving back from Lassen National Forest near Susanville, California.
“Wasn’t even in the back of our mind as something we would encounter today,” Jordan Hewlett said about the scene Saturday night.
KateLynn Hewlett snapped a photo, showing the tornado striking through the Loyalton Fire, which the U.S. Forest Service’s Tahoe Forest office estimated had burned 20,000 acres and was 5 percent contained as of 5 p.m.
Jordan Hewlett said the couple is originally from the Midwest, so the tornado itself wasn’t too scary, but driving through the ash and debris in the air was difficult.
“We continued out of the area to avoid getting in the way of first responders,” Jordan Hewlett said.
The fire was first reported Friday afternoon east of Loyalton, California, which is about a 44-mile drive from Reno.
Evacuation advisories were in place for Chilcoot, Califoria, and anyone living west of U.S. 395 from Hallelujah Junction, California, to Cold Springs in Nevada, according to the Truckee Meadows Fire Department, which downgraded the evacuations after a wind shift around 6:30 p.m.
Contact Sabrina Schnur at sschnur@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0278. Follow @sabrina_schnur on Twitter.
