Firefighters gain control of brush fire in NW Reno

Firefighters are now in control of a fire that burned about two acres in northwest Reno Tuesday morning.

The fire started shortly after 6 a.m. and sent up smoke and flames that could be seen burning about 200 feet from the north side of Interstate 80 just east of the Mogul exit. Fire managers said the blaze forced them to evacuate some residents in the area.

The fire was burning south of Somersett, according to news crews on scene, near the area of The River church.

As of 8 a.m., firefighters said they had control of the fire and "mop-up" efforts were under way.

The blaze was burning along some power lines, up the side of a hillside, and fire managers say the cause of the fire was most likely either a blown transformer or arcing power lines caused by winds. At 8 a.m., wind gusts were measured at 29 miles per hour in Reno.

A spokesman for NV Energy said 3,200 customers were without power during the morning hours just west of Reno-near the area of the fire. The outage occurred because of a power line failure, said Karl Walquist with NV Energy. Crews restored power to most of their customers by 8:10 a.m., but some along West 4th Street would not be restored until later in the morning. It is not clear if the outages occurred because of circumstances related to the fire.

At 7:02 a.m., the Nevada Highway Patrol briefly closed the westbound lanes of Interstate 80 west of Robb Drive, but since then fire department battalion chiefs ordered the roadway reopened. Traffic was not further affected by the fire.

Stay with MyNews4.com and News 4 at Noon for more details.

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