‘Irregularly dry’ summer likely to bring wildfires to Southern Nevada, officials say

Nevada won’t be immune this year to hyperactive wildfires that can take down homes and wipe out entire Western neighborhoods, fire officials said.

It’s wildfire season once again, and drought paired with meager snowpack isn’t doing Southern Nevada any favors, said Kacey KC, Nevada’s state fire warden and forester. Until monsoon rains hits in late July, KC said, the Spring Mountains and Mt. Charleston areas could be in for fire activity.

“Much of the state is approaching critical fuel status,” KC said. “It means we’re irregularly dry for this time of year, and that we have a high probability of ignition.”

KC joined Gov. Joe Lombardo’s roundtable discussion in Carson City with the state’s top fire officials, all who warned of an active wildfire season. Leaders spoke of what went right in suppressing the Davis Fire, the most dangerous fire of last season that sparked a state of emergency, evacuations and the destruction of roughly a dozen homes in Washoe Valley.

The Nevada Division of Forestry estimates that 760 fires started last year that burned almost 103,600 acres. It’s not a record by any measure, nor does it compare in impact with the California wildfires that devastated the Southern California areas of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena in January.

Still, Lombardo said the Davis Fire emerges as a sign of Nevada’s successes in fighting fires quickly and effectively.

“There’s no truer test than how we responded to the Davis Fire,” Lombardo said. “It stood up as probably one of the best practice responses in the nation to last year’s fire season, and that was a result of these kind of meetings and coordination.”

Las Vegas Valley not prone to fires

Though the last five years have been relatively tame in the Silver State, 1999 brought the most active fire season to date when KC said fires burned 1.8 million acres in Nevada.

Mt. Charleston, because of its high elevation, has been the site of much fire activity. The Carpenter 1 Fire in 2013 burned nearly 28,000 acres in the Spring Mountains, caused by a lightning strike that came after three 117-degree days in the valley and intense winds.

And with a road with one lane in either direction as the only access point, emergency response can be tricky, perhaps most recently shown by disruptions to communication during flooding from Tropical Storm Hilary in 2023.

The Las Vegas Valley, however, isn’t prone to massive wildfires because of its relatively flat topography and dry climate. Less rain translates to less foliage that acts as fuel for fires to spark.

Fire risk is still present in the area. Division of Forestry data reveals the outer rings of Henderson and Summerlin as having the most fire potential.

Wildfire response remains collaborative throughout the West, with local, state and federal agencies allocating firefighters as needed to problem areas each year.

Lombardo signed Senate Bill 19 at the end of last month, allowing KC and her staff to enter Nevada into the Great Plains Wildland Fire Protection Compact — allowing for resources to be shared between eight states and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

“We’re a system, and we all need each other,” said Dave Cochran, the Reno fire chief and president of the Nevada Fire Chiefs Association. “No one of us is able to handle this on our own.”

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.