A mountaintop home goes up in flames

Jaida Hargrove’s grandfather, Rick Arrate, lived alone on Peavine Mountain, which overlooks Reno and Sparks. Firefighters used a bulldozer, cut down trees and applied fire retardant in their attempt to contain the flames, Hargrove said.

“They all thought it would be OK,” she said. “And then, in about 30 minutes, the winds just changed and it came way too fast.”

Arrate and the firefighters were quickly forced off the mountain. “All he was able to take with him was his two golden retrievers,” Hargrove said.

Arrate spent Saturday night with Hargrove’s parents, his next steps unknown.

Separate GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns were set up to assist Arrate and the Kieffer family.

A Nevada transplant gets a rude welcome to Reno

Retired police officer and firefighter Ted Melden has seen his share of Mother Nature’s fury since moving to Reno with his wife earlier this month from Chapin, South Carolina. So far, he has experienced a hailstorm with flash flooding, two different power outages and, now, the second wildfire incident in the region in two weeks.

“Just another natural disaster,” Melden said.

In the two years he lived in South Carolina, Melden said Hurricane Helene knocked over trees in his yard, while a tornado did some damage in his neighborhood.

For now, Melden hasn’t been ordered to leave his home, but he has his bags packed just in case.

“You just have to roll with the flow and be ready,” he said.

David Barb returned from a weekend hunting trip to find the fire had leveled his taxidermy shop, but his house nearby appeared to have been spared thanks to workers with a landscaping company who cut a fire break, he said. His wife was home when the fire started on the other side of the mountain and later evacuated to a friend’s house.

“I’m kind of devastated, but thank God everyone’s safe,” he said Sunday.

Residents just outside the evacuation zone are keeping watch

The University of Nevada, where many of the 20,000 undergraduates moved into their housing this weekend, was just outside the evacuation zone Sunday.

Two hospitals evacuated patients and the sheriff said his office was keeping a close watch on whether to evacuate the county jail.

The fire moved exceptionally fast Saturday night, jumping over fire trucks and making it difficult for responders to get to hot spots while residents were trying to get out, the sheriff said.

“It was extremely confusing,” Balaam said, describing how changing winds sent the flames in different directions.