125 Firefighters Contain Blaze Near Historic Virginia City, Nevada

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- More than 100 firefighters snuffed out northern Nevada's first major wildfire of the season Thursday, a wind-driven brush fire that burned about 75 acres in the foothills near the historic mining town of Virginia City.

No homes or other buildings were threatened by the fire that broke out about 2:30 p.m. about 15 miles southeast of Reno.

Fire officials worried at one point that a change in the direction of strong, gusty winds could jeopardize some structures, but the danger passed and the fire was declared fully contained and controlled by 6 p.m.

The fire burned mostly grass and sagebrush just south of Virginia City along State Highway 341, a truck route that connects Silver City to Virginia City near the Lyon-Storey county line. Authorities closed the road for about four hours.

Two airtankers, a helicopter and a dozen fire engines assisted about 125 firefighters, officials for the Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center in Minden.

Some crews remained on the scene into the night Thursday to watch for hot spots and mop up. The cause of the fire remained under investigation.

Winds in the area were out of the southwest at 30 mph. Gusts up to 80 miles per hour were recorded Thursday afternoon on the mountain tops near Mount Rose to the northwest of the fire.

Capt. Jeff Page of the Lyon County Sheriff's Department said that while the winds whipped the fire initially, they helped keep it from advancing later in the day.

Virginia City was the center of the Comstock mining boom in the 1860s. About three-fourths of the town burned in the great fire of 1875.

The entire mountain top town that sits at an elevation of 6,200 feet is a National Park Service National Historic Landmark. Samuel Clemens started writing there for the Territorial Enterprise in 1862 before taking his pen name, Mark Twain.