Rain helps put out two lightning-sparked wildfires

Lightning sparked two brush fires Saturday afternoon which were quickly contained thanks to fast moving firefighters and some help from Mother Nature.

Almost simultaneously just before 5 p.m., two separate lightning strikes ignited brush on McClellan Peak at the north end of Carson City and on the west side, on a hill previously burned in the Waterfall fire of 2005 just behind C Hill.

As brush crews climbed the mountain off Kings Canyon Road, surrounding fire agencies raced into town, and fire fighting planes were preparing to take off, the skies opened up and doused both fires in rain.

"We got pretty lucky in that a little rain came through and knocked it out," said Fire Chief Stacey Giomi.

He said about six acres were burned off Kings Canyon Road. About six of those acres were privately owned, the other half were federal land.

An estimate on what burned on McClellan Peak was not available.

In addition to Carson City Fire's response, the Nevada Division of Forestry, Bureau of Land Management, Eastfork Fire, Genoa Volunteer Fire and Lyon County also assisted.