Carpenter wildfire burns 20,000 acres

The wildfire that began in Carpenter Canyon last week grew to 19,757 acres by Tuesday as firefighters battled dry, hot conditions in their effort to contain the blaze.

According to fire officials, the fire is about 15 percent contained. No injuries or structure losses have been reported so far.

The fire, dubbed Carpenter One, began on July 1 after lightning struck a steep-terrain area in Carpenter Canyon with no direct access for firefighters.

The fire quickly escalated to more than 200 acres by the following day and was reported to have spread to more than 10,000 acres by early Friday evening.

Firefighters have continued working to set up direct lines to the fire west of Trout Canyon and northeast of Lovell Canyon. They are also preparing for possible burnout operations west of Lovell Canyon.

On the Las Vegas side of the mountains, crews reportedly continued to work to prevent the fire from dropping into Kyle Canyon and strategic burnout operations were planned behind the Rainbow subdivision to secure its northern edge.

According to officials present at an informational meeting at the county’s administrative building on the Calvada Eye Friday, topography of the area, and the heat and winds are fueling the fire’s growth, making it more difficult for firefighters to reach certain areas.

“Between topography, the weather, the low humidity and the high temperature, you know it’s fire season, any material out there that wants to burn is wanting to burn and it is burning,” Tony DeMasters, a deputy incident commander with the U.S. Forest Service, said at the meeting.

The weather isn’t predicted to make the fight any easier this week.

According to a report from fire officials Tuesday morning, the weather was predicted to kick winds up to 6 to 10 mph in the valley as well as further hot, dry conditions with humidity as low as 10 percent.

“It has been a one-step forward, half-a-step back kind of day,” Type 1 Great Basin Incident Commander Rich Harvey told more than 100 attendees of an informational meeting at Centennial High School in Las Vegas Sunday evening. “The weather today was good in some aspects, we got some cloud cover, we got some humidity increases, and that’s helpful for the firefighters. But we’ve also added some erratic winds that want to keep the fire moving in different directions and challenging us. So two good, one bad, but all-in-all, there was no significant growth.

“The fire increased about from the 14,108 to about 14,458 in acreage, so it grew about 350 acres today, but nothing significant. Nothing where it got up and run and pushed, but it’s been a backing kind of a fire, not really aggressive movement, no structures lost, no firefighters injured, pretty good day,” he told the crowd.

Due to the increasing acreage of the flames, residents of Trout, Kyle and Lee canyons were evacuated from their homes last week and are still unable to return.

Fire officials at both Friday and Sunday meetings told residents they were continuing to closely monitor the situation on a daily basis and would let them know as soon as it was safe to go back.

Firefighter and public safety were, and continue to be, their number one concern, they said.

Harvey’s team took over the fire Sunday morning following Gov. Brian Sandoval’s surprise visit to Pahrump Saturday, where he told those gathered at the Bob Ruud Community Center he welcomed the more forceful response.

A Type 1 response gives fire suppression authorities nearly limitless resources to contain the wildfire.

Approximately 803 personnel have been brought into the Southern Nevada area to fight the Carpenter One fire.

Nineteen fire crews, 44 engines, two dozers, 10 water tenders and nine helicopters are being used in the fight.

Harvey told the Centennial audience that nearly 10 percent of all Hotshot crews in the nation had also been allocated to help them in the fight.

“We have nine Hotshot crews here with us and if you think about it, there are about 100 Hotshot crews in the nation, so we have about 10 percent of them,” he said.

He went on to tell attendees that firefighters were doing everything in their power to protect their fellow residents and their homes from the flames.

“I’m from Nevada, our team here is from their geographical area, from Idaho, Boise, Utah, and Nevada. We’re in our home district and doing our best to serve,” he said.

To date the cost of battling the blaze has reached almost $5 million.

To offset some of that cost, the State of Nevada filed for federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Friday. The request was granted Monday, which could cover up to 75 percent of the costs.

Though it’s a tough situation for residents forced to evacuate from their home with no return date in sight, many who attended the Pahrump meeting Friday expressed gratitude to the firefighters and Red Cross, who have set up evacuation stations, for the work they have done thus far.

Offers of food, money and volunteers were abundant as people inquired how they could help those who had come from all over to help them.

“I would thank the community, we’ve been other places and very rarely have we been greeted with such support. We’re very pleased that we’re here in Pahrump. When we go into a town like that, they keep us at arm’s reach, arm’s length, really won’t engage us, really won’t tell us what they’re thinking, what their concerns are and this town not only greeted us welcomingly, but your fellow citizens have been able to come up, show their support and let us know what their concerns are, and that’s huge for us,” said Marty Adell, an incident commander with the U.S. Forest Service.

For those who wish, they can donate funds to the National Wildland Firefighter Foundation by visiting www.wwfoundations.org or by calling (203) 336-2996. They can also donate time or money to the American Red Cross by visiting www.redcross.org/lasvegasfirehurts or by calling (702) 369-3674.

For more information on the fire, those interested can follow the Type 1 team on Twitter at @T1GBIMTHarvey or visit them on Facebook at Rocky Basin IMT #2. They can also visit inciweb.org for further information.