Nevada wildfire 50 percent contained

CARSON CITY, Nev. -- Fire managers began releasing engines and air power from a fire Saturday that destroyed at least 15 homes as crews secured containment lines near homes and made progress in the Sierra backcountry to keep the flames out of the Lake Tahoe basin.

Meanwhile, officials broadened their investigation of the fire's cause. They initially said they suspected the blaze was started by teenagers in Kings Canyon the day before the fire erupted Wednesday, but said Saturday the fire could have started last weekend and smoldered undetected for days.

The wind-driven blaze, which scorched nearly 7,600 acres, also destroyed a business and 25 outbuildings. It was 50 percent contained Saturday, and no longer posed an imminent threat to communities in northwest Carson City or surrounding areas in Washoe Valley, officials said.

Fire officials said the blaze could be fully contained by Tuesday with good weather.

"They're getting a very good handle on it," fire information officer Mark Struble said at a press briefing. "If we can hold these lines for another 24 hours, it'll be very, very good."

Hundreds of evacuees were allowed back home late Friday, but some of them on Saturday questioned whether firefighters could have done more to stop the blaze in its early stages.

"This atrocity should never have happened," Washoe Valley resident Betty Kelly said at a town hall meeting Saturday. "There was too much waiting and seeing."

Bill Bettridge, whose home in the Kings Canyon area was spared, suggested fire managers provide the community with a timeline on what action was taken when the pre-dawn fire was reported Wednesday.

Fire officials defended their response, as did some residents.

"They moved so fast to try to control it," said "Mike" Gutter, who watched the fire unfold from her home near Kings Canyon. But the afternoon wind "flattened it out like a pancake and spread it in all directions," she said.

Gusty winds out of the west pushed the wildfire in different directions. Fueled by trees and brush brittle by five years of drought, the fire swept through the area unlike any seen in Carson City's history, officials said.

Nearly 2,000 firefighters remained on the lines Saturday, assisted by more than 120 engines and water tenders, bulldozers and aircraft that included three heavy air tankers.

Meanwhile, in California, hundreds of residents were allowed to return to their homes Saturday after a wildfire in northern Los Angeles County shifted away from two rural communities. Firefighters worked to surround the stubborn blaze.

The fire in Lake Hughes had blackened 15,988 acres, but was about 54 percent contained, officials said.

The blaze was one of dozens of wildfires in California during the week that burned more than 31,000 acres. Karen Terrill of the California Department of Forestry said her department found 200 fires in 48 hours.

In Washington, crews held down a blaze that had damaged 700 acres by Saturday west of Leavenworth, a Bavarian-theme tourist town. Another fire northeast of the town was nearly 70 percent contained. No major injuries or property was reported in any of the fires.