A tour of the burn zone: Eerie, stark

South of the Mount Rose Junction, the damage from the Washoe Drive Fire quickly shows itself. The first streak of blackened brush stretches across the crest of Steamboat Hill above the geothermal plant.

Highway 395 was eerily quiet, devoid of traffic because it remained closed Friday.

Nevada Public Safety Director Chris Perry, taking journalists on a tour of the fire damage, told us a lot of people were upset about not being able to drive south.

"It's not bad," he said. "They're yelling and screaming at our guys, but not bad."

Just south of Steamboat Hill, across from the trailer sales business, black burned areas stretched down the hill to the backyards of homes. The burn comes to within a few yards of Rockhouse Masonry's building.

At the Sparks Mansion, the burn came to within feet of the rear wall of the historic structure.

Everywhere in the valley, fire crews were walking the burned areas, looking for hotspots and knocking on doors to make sure no residents were stranded.

Even with some residents returning to their homes, access was being tightly controlled, with National Guard military police at every street along the highway. Perry said access to the neighborhoods would be controlled into the weekend to prevent vandalism or theft.

At the same time, Nevada Department of Transportation contractors and crews were replacing dozens of the burned wooden posts that hold up steel guardrails along Washoe Hill.

Perry said that if they could get the guardrails replaced and sweep the roadway for any debris, and if firefighters were satisfied that hotspots were controlled, authorities hoped to reopen Highway 395 Friday night.

As light rain spotted the windshield during our tour, Perry said the precipitation was a huge help for the fire crews. Friday's rain also helped by making some of the hidden hotspots visible as steam rises from them.

"They're going to be working on hot spots out here for a while," Perry said as we turned on to Laramie in the middle of Pleasant Valley. A few hundred yards later on Surrey, we saw our first completely burned house. Only the brick fireplace structure stood taller than about 3 feet.

While the rain and cool weather help fire crews, it appeared to be a different story for NV Energy crews working 20 feet or more above the ground repairing power lines.

The utility had a total of nine NV Energy crews scattered throughout the area, replacing more than a dozen burned power poles. In several places, utility workers in buckets were seen already restringing wires on the new poles.

Throughout the valley, it appeared the wind-driven fire leapfrogged from home to home and across the four-lane highway several times. One home might be completely destroyed, while those around it were undamaged. A significant number of the burned homes, officials said, had cedar shake roofs that can ignite easily from wind-blown embers.

Looking at huge burn marks on the east side of the highway in Pleasant Valley, Perry said the fire was advancing at 50-60 mph through that area Thursday afternoon.

On Kitt Way, the blackened beams of a burned-out timber frame home stood stark against the sky, looking strangely like Stonehenge.

Among the things that burned Thursday was what fire officials described as "a two-story pile of manure" near the base of the Galena Creek Bridge.

In New Washoe City, two large homes on a cul-de-sac were destroyed.

In old Washoe City, where the fire is believed to have started, the leapfrog pattern of destruction continued, with one home razed while those around it stood undamaged.

The large, familiar statue of the kneeling miner swinging his pickax behind the Chocolate Nugget Candy Factory remains unscathed.