Nevada's largest fire close to containment

RENO - Fire crews have all but contained Nevada's latest scourge of wildland fires.

The Highway 93 Complex five miles southeast of Jackpot was in mop-up late Friday after burning some 80,533 acres, or about 126 square miles.

"The firefighters have turned the corner on these fires and are putting them to bed," Elko Interagency Center Dispatch Manager Bill Roach said on Friday.

"Firefighters and other resources began demobilizing today and were sent to other fires or home to rest."

The containment largely ended a busy week of firefighting that saw some 290 square miles of northern Nevada blackened by lightning-sparked thunderstorms since last Friday.

The largest active blaze was in Balls Canyon, along U.S. 395 near the California line north of Reno. It was holding at 4,800 acres late Friday.

Rain helped quench the state's other major fire, the 62,000-acre Tungsten blaze just north of Imlay. Crews were being released following containment of the 97-square-mile fire.

The Thomas fire just southwest of Winnemucca, which forced evacuations as it burned to the back yards of some homes earlier in the week, also was contained at 22,650 acres or 35 square miles.

It destroyed one electrical substation and eight outbuildings, but spared the homes.