Nearly 120 firefighters were deployed at dawn to carve lines around the 1,500-acre Robber's fire on a day expected to bring low humidity and temperatures in the 80s, said Larry Benham, incident commander.
The blaze was burning out of control and approaching the point authorities said would trigger mandatory evacuations of the Kyle Canyon community.
``We're not even talking about'' containment, Benham said. ``Everything's dry and the weather's not going to help.''
``We're praying to the wind god and for resource support,'' added William Kourim, a Clark County fire chief.
Camp Stimpson, the Girl Scout camp, and the Spring Mountain Youth Camp for juveniles were evacuated within hours. There were about 100 youngsters at the two camps, Las Vegas police said. Homeowners were ordered out of about 15 homes about a mile and a half from the fire lines. Authorities said the blaze was sparked by a truck crash on Nevada Highway 158, about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Officials said flames sweeping through scrub brush, pinon, juniper, ponderosa and bristlecone pines in the steep canyon were not immediately threatening any structures.
Firefighters aided by a water-dropping helicopter and firefighting air tankers spent Monday afternoon trying to prevent the fire from cresting an 11,000-foot ridge and spreading southwest through tinder-dry brush toward 350 expensive mountain homes in Kyle Canyon.
Benham said they were aided by winds pushing the fire away from homes. But Mark Blankensop, an assistant fire chief for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said that as a precaution authorities ordered the evacuation of people living in the 15 homes in the Deer Creek subdivision.
``This is the fire we didn't want,'' Blankensop said, referring to the drought conditions in the area.
No wide-scale evacuation was ordered, but authorities asked the 2,500 people who live in the Mount Charleston area not to stay. Kyle Canyon Road was closed at U.S. Highway 95.
Kourim said officials feared residents would be trapped if the fire reached the Kyle Canyon communities of Rainbow, Old Town, Echo and Cathedral Rock.
``It's a narrow, box canyon, one way in and one way out,'' he said.
The truck driver, Catherine Teddy, 37, of Las Vegas, was hospitalized. Her condition was not available. But several people who spoke with her at the scene said her injuries did not appear life-threatening.
The mountain road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest is also known as the Deer Creek Highway. It runs past the historic Robber's Roost hideout and boasts roadside viewpoints with wide vistas of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge north of Las Vegas.
