Hand Crew responds to Washoe Valley Skinner fire

By Kyle Magin
Bonanza Staff Writer
May 2, 2008

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High winds fueled the Skinner fire in the Washoe Valley Tuesday and into Wednesday as a hand crew from the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District helped out to fight the blaze.

In total, the fire scorched nearly 1,200 acres.

Assistant Chief Greg McKay said a 22-member hand crew, which included the full 20-member Slide Mountain Hand Crew and two extra members from a second crew, responded to the fire along with an engine from the district manned by four firefighters and battalion chief Scott Sommers.

The fire, which started a little before 2 p.m. Tuesday, burned in the Washoe and Pleasant Valley areas along the west side of U.S. Route 395.

Later, winds clocked at speeds of more than 60 mph caused the fire to jump to the east side of 395, McKay said.

The NLTFPD contingent was in the area by late afternoon, and McKay said they put out a small spot-fire before setting up shop in some evacuated structures to protect them if the fire came close.

“The wind sort of shifted away from those structures when they got there,” McKay said. “If it hadn’t, they would have had a fight on their hands, but nature worked for them rather than against them.”

McKay said there were no injuries as a result of the burn and said everyone was home by 9 p.m. Tuesday.

According to an Associated Press report, the fire was contained by Thursday with the help of cooler temperatures and low winds; firefighters currently are working to extinguish the flames.

The Skinner fire wasn’t the first the NLTFPD responded to this year, though.
McKay said a small hand crew responded to the Oxbow fire at the Oxbow Nature Study Area in Reno last weekend.

He said the crew worked to fell trees that had been burned by the 22-acre blaze.