June is Fire Season

Turns out the last week in June is a bad week for fires in the Western Nevada area. Kurt Hildebrand at the Record Courier brings this up while looking at three devastating fires that happened over the decades.

The Big Genoa Fire of 1910. On June 28, 1910, most of Genoa burned to the ground. The fire was started at the county poor house by someone trying to smoke out bed bugs. He smoked out the bugs, the bed, and several blocks of the town by the time he was done. When the smoke cleared most of downtown was gone, and the county courthouse was just an empty shell.

Autumn Hills Fire. Starting on June 23, 1996, a fire ravaged the Foothills region of the Carson Valley, right at the base of Kingsbury Grade. The blaze started with a couple of delinquent boys who were lighting lizards on fire for fun. One of the lizards escaped, rushed to the safety of a nearby bush, and in doing so started a fire that consumed 3,800 acres. Four houses were destroyed and the forest around Kingsbury Grade still shows the scars.

Angora Fire. While not in Nevada, the Angora Fire was one of the most devastating fires ever in the area. It started on June 24, 2007, in the forest outside South Lake Tahoe. It quickly grew out of control, burning 250 houses and 100 other buildings before finally being extinguished.

So this is a bad week historically, but this year we’ve been good so far. Let’s hope the rest of the year is just as good.

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