Hawk Fire Explodes to 10,500 Acres Outside Reno, Nevada Governor Declares State of Emergency

A brush fire that ignited on a hillside northwest of Reno, Nevada, just before 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 22, grew into a 10,500-acre disaster within hours, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

The Hawk Fire remained at zero percent containment as of Saturday night, according to Nevada officials tracking the blaze through the Perimeter Map emergency system. It is burning on U.S. Forest Service land in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, north of Interstate 80 and south of U.S. Highway 395, according to Hindustan Times.

Truckee Meadows Fire Chief Richard Edwards called it "a very dynamic incident" driven by high winds under a Red Flag Warning. "The wind-driven fires move very rapidly into our residential areas, creating a lot of challenges for our firefighters to save homes and protect lives," Edwards said. He urged residents not to wait on evacuation orders and to keep a go-bag ready.

Evacuations Expanded Through Saturday Night

Washoe County authorities spent Saturday afternoon and evening repeatedly upgrading evacuation warnings to mandatory orders as the fire jumped Highway 395 to the north side near Peppermint Drive, according to KUNR Public Radio. By 7:19 p.m., every evacuation warning north of U.S. 395 had been converted to a mandatory order, with only the Panther Valley zone still under warning status.

New warnings followed for the Lemmon Valley and Silver Knolls areas, according to KOLO, and by evening the fire's northern edge overlapped ground already burned days earlier by the Bug Fire. Roughly 1,000 homes along the U.S. 395 corridor fell within mandatory evacuation zones, according to Hindustan Times.

The Washoe County Sheriff's Office closed U.S. 395 in both directions between Parr Boulevard and Red Rock Road, according to a Sheriff's Office Facebook post cited by KOLO. Nevada State Police assisted with traffic control. By 9 p.m., the Nevada Department of Transportation reported northbound ramps at Parr Boulevard and Bordertown were closed, while southbound ramps between Stead Boulevard and Reno remained open specifically for evacuation traffic, according to 2news.com.

Power Outages and Emergency Shelters

Power outage figures climbed sharply through the night. NV Energy reported more than 59,000 Washoe County customers without power by 6:45 p.m., according to KOLO, a number that later settled around 41,000 in Washoe County plus over 5,000 in the North Lake Tahoe area by 9 p.m. ABC News separately reported thousands of customers without power and cited the closure of part of U.S. 395.

The Evelyn Mount Northeast Community Center, initially opened as an evacuation site, reached capacity and was replaced by a larger site at Hall 4 of the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, according to both KUNR and 2news.com. The Red Cross was on hand at the convention center with blankets, food and drinks, according to KOLO.

Washoe County officials specifically warned that the Reno-Sparks Livestock Event Center was not available for large animal evacuation because of a scheduled event, according to both 2news.com and KOLO, and no alternative site had been identified as of Saturday night.

Northern Nevada Health Systems temporarily closed the emergency room at North Valleys Hospital north of Reno because of the evacuations, according to ABC News.

Governor Declares Emergency, Structures Already Lost

Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency in Washoe County Saturday night, directing all state agencies to work through the Nevada Emergency Operations Center to support local response, according to 2news.com.

Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve confirmed some structures had already burned. "If you have been told to evacuate, please don't wait! Structures have already been burned in this fire and your life is more important than a building," she said in a statement carried by 2news.com. ABC News quoted a similar statement, with Schieve adding that firefighters and first responders were "heroically fighting the fire and the high winds to save lives, homes, businesses, livestock and pets."

The Washoe County Sheriff's Office said it was monitoring the fire's approach to the county detention facility. Sheriff Darin Balaam told Hindustan Times that authorities were coordinating with fire and emergency agencies to protect inmates and staff, calling their safety "a top priority" and saying the department was prepared to act further if conditions worsened.

Local casinos offered discounted rooms for evacuees, according to 2news.com. The Silver Legacy, Eldorado and Circus Circus in Reno set a $59 rate with no resort fee using booking code SCLOC26. J Resort matched that rate under code HAWK26, and the Nugget in Sparks offered rooms at $49.

Response Resources and What Comes Next

Firefighting crews deployed air tankers, two helicopters and ground personnel, with additional support requested from Cal Fire, according to Hindustan Times. Resources previously assigned to the now-contained Bug Fire were redirected to the Hawk Fire.

Evacuation orders also extended into neighboring Sierra County, California, according to Hindustan Times, underscoring the fire's cross-border reach along the Nevada-California line.

Separately, wildfires have been burning across other parts of the western U.S. and Canada this month. Crews in the Spokane, Washington area were finishing mop-up operations on fires that damaged or destroyed roughly 920 structures, according to the Associated Press as carried by Breitbart, and a man has been arrested and charged with intentionally setting the largest of those blazes. In British Columbia, more than 20,000 people fled communities along Okanagan Lake, and Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed an 80-year-old woman died attempting to escape that fire, according to the Associated Press. Those fires are separate incidents from the Hawk Fire and are not linked to it in any of the reporting.

As of Saturday night, the Hawk Fire remained at zero percent containment with no acreage growth figure updated past 10,522 acres. Fire officials have not released an estimate for when containment lines might hold, and the full number of structures lost has not yet been confirmed by Washoe County authorities.