Overview
- The Hawk Fire ignited in the Peavine Peak foothills on Saturday and grew rapidly downhill into populated neighborhoods, with officials reporting no containment as the flames expanded over thousands of hectares.
- Authorities have ordered roughly 42,000 people to evacuate and placed tens of thousands more on alert, while some officials urged as many as 90,000 residents to leave or prepare to leave.
- A Washoe County sheriff publicly attributed the blaze to human activity and investigators are conducting an active probe into how the fire began.
- Governor Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency for Washoe County and mobilized the Nevada National Guard as hundreds of firefighters, tanker aircraft and helicopters fought the fire; hospitals evacuated patients, multiple structures were destroyed and at least six people were injured.
- Dry fuels, low humidity and shifting winds that have driven recent fires in the Reno area are straining local response capacity and could cause more road and power closures or expanded evacuations in the coming days.