More than 6,000 acres burned. Eleven homes and a church were lost. Thousands were told to flee their homes and shelter elsewhere, and students in south Reno — who had yet to be in class for even a month this fall — had a week’s worth of education delayed.
But the most dire forecasts — flames tearing through homes along the west side of Reno all the way up to McCarran Boulevard — didn’t come true thanks to firefighters who spent the week battling the Davis Fire, which started in a wooded park in Washoe Valley.
“By the hard work of those firefighters … it saved the day up there. No growth experienced,” said Stewart Turner, the fire behavior analyst who modeled predictions for the wildfire. “It wasn’t luck, it wasn’t the weather change, it was the hard work of those firefighters. That’s all it was.”
Firefighters, resources pour into Northern Nevada
The fire started Saturday, Sept. 7 in Davis Creek Regional Park and grew rapidly, burning 14 structures, including 11 homes and a church. Evacuation warnings were issued for areas of Washoe Valley and along Mt. Rose Highway, and eventually encompassed neighborhoods as far north as Lakeridge and Lakeside Drive. Residents took refuge in local shelters and in the many area hotels that offered discounted rates for the displaced.