Alert Dayton postal worker saves the day after spotting wildfire on Six Mile road

A new resident of the Virginia City Highlands got a baptism by fire Tuesday as she witnessed the beginning stages of a wildfire on Six Mile Canyon Road.

Sandy Boyer was on her way to work as a postal clerk in the Dayton post office at about 7:10 a.m. when she saw the fire, at the intersection of Six Mile Canyon and Seven Mile Canyon roads. It was her first day coming from her new home in the Virginia City Highlands.

Though her cell phone didn't work in the canyon, she managed to flag down a Lyon County Public Works vehicle, said Storey County Fire Chief Gary Hames.

The public works crew called the Storey County Fire Department and with Boyer, started to put out the fire, which was small, Hames said, about 50-by-50 feet.

"With all that fire going on in South Shore over at the lake, it didn't take too much of a second thought to stop," Boyer said. "It wasn't too bad, but it was starting to get big as it was going up the hill."

The two Lyon County workers and Boyer had the fire out before Storey County got there, she said, but the firefighters saturated the ground with water, just to be safe.

The two Public Works employees, Dustin Homan and Dennis Gee were on their way to a training class in Reno when Boyer flagged them down, said Lyon County Road Manager Gary Fried.

"They went up to where they could turn around safely and saw the fire and got out their shovels," he said. "They started kicking dirt and some other people stopped and they made a firebreak."

Fried said they got the fire out and still made their class on time. "They did very well," he said. "I'm very proud of them."

Hames said the cause of the blaze was under investigation. He called it human-caused, suspicious in nature.

"When I got there the fire was probably Dumpster size," Boyer said. "I must have just missed whomever started it."

She said it was in an odd place and too far from the road to be a cigarette butt thrown from a car.

"I thought maybe a transient might have camped overnight and their campfire got way from them," she said. "This whole area was a big dirt road. I didn't see any motorcycles or anyone leaving."

Hames said anyone with information or who may have witnessed unusual activity in that area should call the fire department at 847-0954.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.

You can help

Anyone with information on the Six Mile Canyon fire can call the Storey County Fire Department at 847-0954.