Reno - area wildfire advance has stopped , but work remains before evacuees can return , official says - WSVN 7News | Miami News , Weather , Sports

Reno, Nevada (CNN) — Firefighters have the stopped forward progress of a wildfire threatening neighborhoods around Reno, and are working to extinguish hot spots on the fire’s perimeter in hopes of letting evacuated residents return to their homes “as soon as possible,” a fire official said Tuesday.The Hawk Fire, which has burned some 15,000 acres just northwest of Reno and destroyed more than 30 homes since it began Saturday, has been 27% contained since Monday. But firefighters anticipate that containment “to go up as we continue to be successful along the fire edge,” Matt Armantrout, an operations official with the fire management team fighting the blaze, said Tuesday in a video posted to Facebook.In the places where the fire perimeter is closest to Reno homes, “there’s still a lot of work” that firefighters need to do before evacuated residents can return, he said.“We’re going to continue … put out those hot spots in that area, and hopefully be able to get the residents back into their homes as soon as possible,” Armantrout said.Still, the weather – which spread the fire quickly over the weekend with strong winds – could yet intervene.

“Forecasted winds and gusts over the next few days are expected to challenge containment lines,” fire officials warned in a news release Tuesday.Approximately 23,000 people remain in an “evacuate now” zone and around 40,000 people are within a “get set to evacuate” status, the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.Around 87,000 people in parts of Reno and Nevada’s Washoe County – just under a fifth of the county’s population of 500,000 – had been urged over the weekend to evacuate, and at least two medical centers evacuated patients, as high winds pushed the wildfire to the city’s edge.The fire at one point Sunday was advancing down a hillside toward residential neighborhoods near the city, one of the latest endangered communities in a destructive fire season that has scorched thousands of acres and forced the evacuations of entire towns across the Southwest.Officials said 32 homes were destroyed and six were damaged as of Monday afternoon, though additional businesses and residential structures have been damaged and the exact number is expected to rise in the coming days.The fire is siuated just miles from the Nevada-California state line, prompting officials in both states to monitor it closely. Nevada’s governor declared an emergency in Washoe County, which includes Reno and parts of Lake Tahoe, and activated the Nevada National Guard.Authorities reopened US 395, a major highway connecting California and Nevada, Monday evening after having it closed throughout the day.Cari Kieffer saw a video posted on social media that showed her house on Reno’s outskirts had burned down, with only a scorched basketball hoop still standing, she told The Associated Press on Sunday.“I woke up this morning and just started crying – all my kids, they lost everything,” Kieffer told the AP.

First reported by wsvn.com.