Around 9,000 people have been cleared to return to their Reno, Nevada, area homes Tuesday as firefighters made more progress containing a major, human-caused wildfire that destroyed more than 40 homes, officials said.
Around 5,000 people were still evacuated due to the Hawk Fire, which began Saturday and grew quickly, Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said at a news conference.
But by 2 p.m., the areas east of State Route 395 were allowed to return, Balaam said. The west side of the highway was the hardest hit, he said.
The fire has burned 15,067 acres and was 27% contained Tuesday afternoon, officials said at a news conference.
There have been no deaths found or reported with the fire, which Richard Edwards, fire chief with Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District, said was remarkable.
“I think it’s incredible that we’ve not had a fatality in this fire, given how fast it’s moved,” he said.
The fire moved 6 miles within 24 hours of its start Saturday, Edwards said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but it is believed to have been human-caused, said Balaam, the sheriff. It was not known Tuesday whether the start was intentional or accidental, he said.
“We can say that because of where it occurred,” Balaam said. “It was in the middle of nowhere, there was no lightning strikes, there was nothing else that could have caused this fire.”
While firefighters have made progress on the blaze, critical fire weather conditions were forecast to begin Wednesday and last through the weekend, Edwards said.
“Please be careful,” he said. “All of these fires, these large fires that we’ve incurred over the last two-and-a-half weeks, which —human-caused — that means they’re preventable.”
