40,000-acre Nevada blaze claims most of fire academy ( and Grand Canyon wildfires )

The Associated Press ^ | 06/27/2006 | Scott Sonner

[george76]

In Ariz., fire 30 miles from Grand Canyon strands tourists.

Lightning-sparked wildfires burned across more than 50,000 acres of northern Nevada on Monday, closing Interstate 80 for a second day, forcing evacuations in some rural areas and claiming most of the training grounds at a state fire academy.

At least a half-dozen new fires were spotted around the Reno and Carson City area after another round of thunderstorms packing lightning rolled through the area Monday.

Nearly 1,000 firefighters were fighting about two dozen blazes from the heavily timbered western front of the Sierra Nevada near Reno to the sage- and grass-filled rangeland near Elko, 300 miles east.

In Arizona, a 58,300-acre wildfire north of Grand Canyon National Park jumped the only highway leading to the remote North Rim, closing the road and marooning hundreds of tourists and workers. With the fire burning national forest land about 30 miles from the park, officials said no one was in any danger.

The state's biggest fire Monday surpassed 40,000 acres about 20 miles west of Elko near Carlin, where the University of Nevada Fire Science Academy is located along I-80.

Flames burned 350 acres of the training grounds on the 426-acre campus and came within several hundred yards of the main academy building, said Denise Baclawski, the academy's executive director.

Fifteen students were at the academy, learning about wildland fires, but they left the firefighting chores to staff, she said.

"We do a lot of real-life fire training, but we never expected this," Baclawski said. "All night long we had staff members work to protect the facility."

[george76]