Crews back to battle 2 wildfires that forced evacuations, burned 10 homes near Las Vegas

Fires burn homes, force evacuations near Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — Firefighters are back to battling two wildfires that have forced people near Las Vegas to evacuate their homes.

No serious injuries have been reported, but fire damaged or destroyed 10 homes and five other buildings in the desert ranching hamlet of Moapa (moh-AH’-pah), about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

More than 100 firefighters with aerial tankers and a helicopter are fighting that blaze, which has burned a little more than a square mile of land.

Meanwhile, homes have been evacuated on Mount Charleston, about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

More than 250 firefighters from four states are battling a 20-acre wildfire in steep terrain there. No structures have been damaged.

Both fires broke out Thursday, and officials say they were human-caused.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Firefighters battled two wildfires near Las Vegas that have forced evacuations, and one of the blazes burned 15 buildings, officials said.

A wildfire that started Thursday morning near the desert ranching hamlet of Moapa, 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas, spread across 680 acres.

The federal Bureau of Land Management said in a release late Thursday that 10 homes were among the buildings damaged or destroyed.

More than 100 firefighters with aerial tankers and a helicopter fought the blaze. Officials said fire activity decreased after nightfall, but they expected a resurgence Friday.

Meanwhile, homes were evacuated in subdivisions of a rustic community on Mount Charleston, about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where a 13- 15-acre blaze burned late Thursday in steep terrain off State Route 157.

Several road are closed around Mount Charleston, but all roads were opened in the Moapa area.

Officials said there have been no serious injuries in either blaze, both of which were human-caused.

Police warned residents in Mount Charleston’s Old Town and Rainbow subdivisions of Kyle Canyon to evacuate as the blaze intensified Thursday in steep terrain off State Route 157, officials said. No homes have been damaged in the blaze, dubbed the Cathedral fire.

The Cathedral Rock Picnic Area and trail heads were evacuated after the fire started just after noon at a mountain elevation of about 7,200 feet, federal Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon said.

Cannon said the Cathedral fire was about 1,000 feet from homes. It charred a swath of pinion pine trees and shrubs between the Rainbow area and the Mount Charleston lodge, a restaurant and cabins atop Kyle Canyon Road.

The National Weather Service posted a “red flag” critical fire warning Thursday for some parts of southern Nevada, but not the immediate Las Vegas area.