The Carpenter Fire was located about twenty miles from downtown Las Vegas
in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area.
Also known as Mount Charleston.
The Carpenter one fire was ignited by lightning on July 1, 2013.
And it burned around twenty senven thousand acres in about twelve days.
The Carpenter one fire threatened several communities located in the National Recreation
Area.
There's a number of fuels reduction projects that have gone on up here.
There's about four hundred homes in this canyon.
There's one road in, one road out.
We have a huge amount of people visiting on weekends especially.
For recreation, hiking, since we're so close to Las Vegas.
And there's about four hundred homes.
So there's been a number of fuels reduction projects done here in Kyle Canyon.
And there's certainly some around the subdivisions, there's some along the highway corridor
that was identified as one of the major potentials for car fires, this kind of thing.
So where we're standing right now is one of the fuel breaks
that is going around campgrounds and further up the canyon it
goes around one of the major subdivisions here, rainbow subdivision.
Many fuels reduction projects have happened in the Mount Charleston area over the years.
It's truly been a collaborative effort between the US Forest Service, the Bureau
of Land Management, the Nevada Division of Forestry, Clark County
Fire Department, the Nevada Fire safe council and many many
others.
Most of these projects have been funded through the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management
Act And the US Forest Service State and Private
Forestry Program.
So, a fuels reduction project is a project that is meant to thin out a forest
to reduce the spacing between trees.
To reduce an understory to reduce the intensity of a fire when it comes through.
Slow down the speed at which it's traveling, the intensity which the flames are coming
through, the size of the fire, in order to make it
more defendable.
The Carpenter Fire started on the Mount Charleston Area
and due to the fuels reductions in the Mount Charleston, Kyle Canyon area,
it was beneficial to all parties here that we were
able to save all the structures in the Kyle Canyon area.
Well, what we had here, is we had a subdivision of about thirty homes in this summer home
area.
And as the fire made its run and backed down the hill,
we were able to do a burnout operation behind the structures to protect them.
And it was a pretty aggressive operation that we had to do,
But we were helped tremendously by the fuels reduction
that had been done in here.
This is an aerial image of the Trout Canyon community.
Which is also in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area.
Here in Trout Canyon, you can see where the Carpenter Fire had burned.
It's the grayish color on the landscape.
And it burned right up to where you can see the fuel treatment
which is around the community.
Firefighters were able to use airplanes to drop retardant,
which is the red color, right inside of the fuel breaks
or adjacent to the fuel breaks.
This fuels treatment area created a safe location for firefighters to defend the community.
And as you can see, the fire went right up to or just inside the fuel treatments.
And that is where firefighters were able to take suppression actions
to save the homes in the Trout Canyon Community.
I feel that this fuels treatment here in the Mount Charleston area has been beneficial
to us protecting the structures at this fire.
I felt that the fuel treatment along the powerline was also very critical to keep the water flowing,
and the pumps going to the town itself.
They've taken great lengths to take the fuels reduction all the way down the power
grid and around the homes.
Obviously, it works.
There's no question that helped slow down some of the
rate of burn up here with the reduction of the fuels.
And naturally being Johnny on the spot, it saved the communities
because otherwise this would have just been a pile of ash.
It's just sad to see any of it happen.
And we live in the environment where you have to contend with mother nature
sometimes she's not too cooperative.
These fuel breaks are super effective here in Kyle Canyon.
Most recently here with the Carpenter one fire.
This particular fuel break gave the firefighters a safe and effective place to work their operations.
Just behind us is a hose lay.
They felt safe doing that here.
They burned out along this road because they had exits,
the intensity of the fire if it did make it down here
would have been greatly reduced.
And then we've seen up in the canyon, up around rainbow subdivision,
we had the Cathedral Fire a couple of years ago,
where there was a fire burning right in the subdivision,
it hit the fuel break, and it stopped.
Without the firefighters even being there.
So these fuel breaks that are being put in around these communities
are greatly effective and we've seen it around Kyle Canyon a number of times.