[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 11147]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              NEVADA FIRES

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I returned from Nevada this Sunday. On 
Saturday I had a briefing by the head of the Forest Service in Nevada. 
We thought things were going very well with the fires in Nevada, and 
they were. Progress was being made--limited but progress was being 
made. But since that time the fires have gotten much worse.
  Not everyone can see this, but I have a picture--of course, I didn't 
get this until early this morning and didn't have a chance to enlarge 
it so we could put it on an easel--but this is the beginning of the Las 
Vegas strip. This is downtown Las Vegas. It is called the Carpenter 
fire. You can see it burning.
  It is only about 10 miles from Las Vegas, maybe 12 at the most. We 
can see Mount Charleston, a 12,000-foot mountain. The flames are 
shooting above that. We don't get many clouds in southern Nevada, but 
the smoke cloud here is intense. One of my staff indicated that where 
she lives it is raining ash. This is a very devastating fire, and the 
firefighters are doing the very best they can in a very difficult 
situation.
  My thoughts go out to the thousands who have been evacuated from 
their homes in southern Nevada's Mount Charleston area--I think 
hundreds would be a better way to say this. Out where the Carpenter 1 
fire is, as it is called, it has burned more than 30 square miles of 
forest and desert.
  My heart goes out to the first responders. They are working very hard 
in extremely rugged terrain. They are doing a lot in the air with 
helicopters and large airplanes. A couple of areas have been saved 
because these firefighters have been able to cut waves so the flames 
don't jump over into these houses. Yesterday the wind changed, and one 
of the roads going up to Mount Charleston, Kyle Canyon--it jumped that 
road, burning there, getting closer to some of the homes we are so 
concerned about.
  Lives have been saved as a result of what the firefighters are doing. 
They have been working around the clock to contain the blaze and 
protect their communities. Unfortunately, this is southern Nevada where 
we had heat last week virtually every day of 112 to 117 degrees. It is 
hot in Las Vegas without this fire; we don't get much rain. In the 
entire year we get 4 inches of rain. The summer heat, these dry 
conditions, and the winds are really working against the firefighters, 
but they are working very hard.
  The progress we were making was erased yesterday. The fire jumped 
Kyle Canyon Road, as I said, and spread to new forest and new desert 
land. We thought everyone would be able to return to their homes in 
Kyle Canyon yesterday, but with the fire having spread the way it did, 
we hope they can get back in their homes soon. We have had a number of 
hotels in Las Vegas that allowed people who have been displaced to have 
free lodging.
  As I indicated, smoke can be seen everyplace. We have 2 million 
people now in Las Vegas. Everybody can see the fire. These flames, one 
can see them well over the 12,000-foot mountain.
  The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service are all working 
with other Federal agencies and State agencies. They are assisting 
firefighters in containing the blaze and helping residents to move.
  There is also a fire burning in Reno, south of Reno. It is called the 
Bison fire. It is the largest fire ever recorded in western Nevada. 
People have been--especially in the Pipeline Canyon area--urged to 
evacuate. I am going to continue to monitor both of these fires because 
they are disasters.
  I appreciate all the work done at the State level. My office has 
extended support to Governor Sandoval to do everything we can to assist 
the State in anything they need, and I will do everything I can to 
ensure every Federal resource that is available will be made available 
to support local officials and fire crews.
  There are currently more than 20 active fires in 11 States, including 
Nevada's neighbors: California--and we all know about the fire in 
Arizona, but there are others--Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. There are 
thousands of firefighters working around the clock to save lives and to 
save property. I will do everything I can, I repeat, to help them.

                          ____________________