Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 | 2 a.m.
As devastating wildfires that scorched large areas of Los Angeles and vicinity finally appear to be under control, federal and local officials here in Nevada continue to urge homeowners in fire-prone areas of the state to be proactive in their prevention efforts.
And that includes being aware of humans causing fires that can seemingly start small but become conflagrations quickly.
The Bureau of Land Management reported 81 human-caused fires in 2024 on lands it oversees in Southern Nevada, including incidents of arson and from burning trash, officials said.
The most common causes: firearms and fireworks, said Shane Kelly, the fire trespass coordinator for the Southern Nevada Fire District of BLM.
When a wildfire occurs in Nevada, BLM and other federal agencies, like the Nevada Division of Forestry, are called in to investigate.
Getting to the root of the cause of a fire is a lengthy process. That’s especially true in large fires that wreak widespread destruction. Cases in point: this month’s Palisades, Eaton and Hughes fires in California that have torched a combined 47,000 acres.
“The faster you’re able to get to the scene and the faster you’re able to start your investigation, the better chance of finding out what happened,” Kelly said.
But, first things first — extinguishing the flames.
The BLM, Nevada Division of Forestry and municipal fire departments coordinate to determine who has jurisdiction to respond, Kelly said. Sometimes, neighboring firefighting crews assist.
“We don’t really care whose land it’s on until after the fires are put out,” Kelly said. “Whoever is the closest resource … is going to go.”
Once a fire is under control, investigators follow the scientific method, policies and procedures to identify the origin and causes of fires, Kelly said.
Investigators start big narrow the origin area using indicators. These indicators include burn marks on vegetation, orientation of charring and burn or soot marks on rocks and soil.
BLM uses three colored flags to mark indicators: red, blue and yellow. Red signifies an advancing indicator, Kelly said.
When a fire is aggressively advancing in a certain direction, like when a fire is wind driven, the red flag shows that direction.
Blue signifies a backing indicator, Kelly said. This includes the intensity of whatever vegetation was burned.
If wind was blowing in a grass field, for example, the fire would spread in the direction of the wind but also slowly go in the opposite direction of the wind until there was no grass. When it’s backing, the fire is going to burn at a lower intensity and not fully burn like it would on the other side of the fire.
Yellow signifies a lateral indicator to show if the fire moved to the left or right, Kelly said.
“It’s not always easy, especially in the desert … because there’s much less vegetation to look at,” Kelly said. “You use those indicators to work yourself backwards.”
Sometimes they can narrow it down to a point where they’re then looking for evidence of what started the fire, like a firework or a piece of a vehicle, Kelly said.
But investigators can’t always figure out the actual cause.
In 2024, of the 81 deemed fires caused by humans, investigators couldn’t determine how exactly they were started on 35% of them.
“That’s really the truth of it,” Kelly said. “A lot of times you can’t figure out what started it, but you usually can figure out where it started.”
Investigators might have an idea of what started it, but if there’s no evidence, if they can’t narrow it down or if there is more than one possible cause, they can’t be certain.
Mount Charleston fires
The Las Vegas area has a low wildfire risk because of its predominant desert environment — the Mojave Desert blanketing the region is light on vegetation.
It’s a different story in nearby Mount Charleston, where in 2024 three instances of fire required federal investigation. The community of nearly 500 residents is about 40 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
One of the most notable Mount Charleston fires was the Carpenter 1 Fire in July 2013 started by a lightning strike in Carpenter Canyon on the Pahrump side of the Spring Mountains. The fire burned for more than three weeks and ignited over 28,000 acres.
Two firefighters were hurt and six structures burned while more than 1,300 firefighters fought the flames.
One of 10 cases of fire on Mount Charleston is caused by arson — a testament to community outreach, said Jason Douglas, fire chief at Mount Charleston Fire Protection District.
“We have a lot of community folks that really deter people from doing things like that up here,” Douglas said. “It’s not very common in our area.”
It’s a different narrative in Northern Nevada, where wet winters and springs fuel the growth of vegetation, which in turn increases the chance of fire. For example, the Caldor Fire of 2021 in the Lake Tahoe area burned 221,835 acres, destroying hundreds of homes and threatening the area’s resorts.
BLM partners with agencies to use interactive maps showing where fire restrictions are in Nevada, cameras that monitor and identify wildfires and use artificial intelligence to detect smoke, Kelly said.
Nevada wildfires tend to burn more brush and grass. California wildfires tend to burn more in the state’s forests, where winds in canyons and ravines help the fires to spread, said Tim Brown, director of Western Regional Climate Center at Desert Research Institute.
The center offers operational fire weather forecasts to assist agencies and departments fighting wildfires, Brown said.
Land management agency meteorologists use this forecast tool to provide information on fire planning.
“The atmosphere drives the fire, but the fire can also drive the atmosphere,” Brown said. “In a model you want these two things talking to each other.”
Educating and preventing
For residents whose homes are in or near wildfire zones, Douglas recommends learning about defensible space around their homes. The 5 feet nearest to a structure is called “zone zero,” where property owners should avoid having a firewood stack or anything that could catch fire easily.
Keeping defensible space clear increases the chance of a home surviving a wildfire, the BLM’s Kelly said. The BLM partners with the Nevada Division of Forestry to visit homeowners properties and offer a free assessment and hazard fuels removal, such as a backyard full of brush or trees.
“If you can protect the edges of the community, then you will protect the interior,” Kelly said. “It’s really a community effort.”
BLM’s Southern Nevada district is concerned about people who live between nature and urban landscapes, Kelly said. These are communities like Mount Charleston, the Spring Mountains, and areas of Pahrump, Nye County and Mesquite.
As part of the effort to reduce the chance of wildfires, fuels management — the act of reducing hazardous fuels by doing prescribed burns or a mechanical method — is employed to reduce the number of grasses and shrubs that easily catch on fire and maintain the health of an ecosystem, Brown said.
“Whenever we see an incident like California, we also need to think of our own areas,” Douglas said.
“Zone One” measures 5-30 feet, where the Mount Charleston Fire Protection District would like to see up to 15 feet between trees, Douglas said, to prevent fire from moving from tree to tree.
“Any type of natural disaster can happen at any time,” Douglas said. “The biggest thing is, if you had to evacuate right now, do you know what you need?”