Fire in Mary Jane Falls area at Mount Charleston contained
The blaze in the Mary Jane Falls area of Mount Charleston that started Tuesday morning was declared contained at 5:30 p.m., according to the U.S. Forest Service.
Fire crews responded around 11:30 a.m. to a report of smoke, according to a tweet from the Forest Service. Between a quarter of an acre and a third of an acre had burned, in what officials are calling the October Fire, according to Ray Johnson, a Forest Service spokesman.
According to the Bureau of Land Management’s Nevada Wildfire Information Dashboard, the fire was discovered at 10:09 a.m., and the cause is still unknown.
Johnson said units from the Forest Service, the BLM, the Nevada Division of Forestry and the Mount Charleston Fire Protection District were on scene. He said the Metropolitan Police Department, Nevada Highway Patrol and Clark County Public Works department also had been in the area helping with security.
All the responding units were sent home at 5:30 p.m. once the fire was contained. Johnson said two engines will return to the area at 8 a.m. Wednesday to monitor the blaze.
A hose line that was pumping water uphill from a fire engine Tuesday afternoon will remain in place overnight.
Daniel Howard, a bartender at the Mount Charleston Lodge, said the fire could be seen from the lodge’s deck, but there were no plans to evacuate.
Fire Update: The reported smoke in the Mary Jane Falls area on the SMNRA is being called the #OctoberFire and is 1/2 an acre. Resources are on scene. @NevadaFireInfo pic.twitter.com/zPaKNLslse
— Humboldt Toiyabe NF (@HumboldtToiyabe) October 15, 2019
The Mary Jane Falls area was one of many that was evacuated in July 2013, as the Carpenter 1 fire burned nearly 28,000 acres over the course of more than a month. The blaze was one of the largest wildfires ever to hit the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area.
Contact Alexis Egeland at aegeland@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexis_egeland on Twitter.