The fast-growing Hawk Fire was spreading toward neighborhoods in northwest Reno early Sunday, growing to more than 10,500 acres (42 sq. km.) Nearly 14,000 homes were ordered evacuated, and the \u201cGO NOW\u201d zone reached the edge of the University of Nevada campus. <\/p>\n
The fire has been burning across a rugged section of the Humboldt\u2013Toiyabe National Forest where the Peavine Mountain is ringed by homes and businesses on the Nevada side of the California state line, and some of these homes were consumed by the flames. <\/p>\n
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency in Washoe County, and mobilized the Nevada National Guard to support aerial firefighting with two helicopter crews as well as 60 troops to help police safeguard evacuated neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Nearly 10,000 customers were without power in Washoe County on Sunday. Portions of U.S. Route 395, a major north-south highway, were closed due to the fire. Reno has a population of more than 280,000 residents. <\/p>\n
Washoe County emergency officials opened the Reno-Sparks Convention Center to evacuees, but said they couldn\u2019t bring their pets \u2014 small animals and large animals were to be left at two other locations.<\/p>\n
A family raced to grab possessions but lost their home<\/p>\n
Cari Kieffer was among those to lose a home in the wildfire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up this morning and just started crying \u2014 all my kids, they lost everything,\u201d Kieffer said Sunday. \u201cWe lost all our stuff. Everything we own is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kieffer was watching her son\u2019s football game Saturday when she learned that her home on the outskirts of Reno was in the evacuation zone. An application the family had been using to track the fire\u2019s progress was lagging significantly behind its actual location, she said, and they had thought firefighters had kept the blaze from their neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Instead, Kieffer, her husband and their four children ages 3 to 16 raced to save their dogs and whatever possessions they could retrieve. Ash rained down and the wind blew like an oven blast from a wall of flames advancing down the hillside toward their neighborhood, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept looking outside and the flames just kept getting closer and closer every time I looked,\u201d Kieffer said. \u201cI was like, we gotta go like now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eyes watering and throat burning, Kieffer grabbed a handful of clothes, a Bible, her wedding photos and her mother\u2019s ashes. In the frenzy, as firefighters yelled at her family to leave immediately, she said she forgot her family\u2019s birth certificates and was unable to salvage her childhood photos.<\/p>\n
The family drove to a friend\u2019s home but had to evacuate shortly afterward to another location. They learned later that evening that their own home had burned down.<\/p>\n