Fast-moving wildfire amid shifting winds threatens Reno, Nevada, forcing thousands to evacuate

A fast-moving wildfire that jumped over fire trucks and made it difficult for crews to reach hot spots destroyed homes in northwest Reno, Nevada, on Sunday. Shifting winds challenged firefighters trying to bring it under control, and authorities urged some 90,000 people to evacuate.

At least six people — three first responders and three civilians — were injured, officials said. Officials said the fire was “human-caused” but did not provide details on how they reached that conclusion, or whether it was intentionally set or accidental.

The Hawk Fire began Saturday and quickly grew to more than 23 square miles (60 sq. km.) as it spread across the Peavine Peak area of the Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest, where rugged foothills are ringed by homes and businesses near the California state line.

Some 42,000 residents have been ordered evacuated as the “GO NOW” zone expanded, reaching the edge of the University of Nevada. An additional 45,000 people were in the adjacent evacuation warning zone. Authorities implored all of them to leave and be prepared to stay away for several days, because shifting and strengthening winds were expected to make the fire even more unpredictable.

“Please get out if you can right now,” Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam said.

Cari Kieffer said a video posted on social media showed her house entirely burned down, with only a scorched basketball hoop still standing.

“I woke up this morning and just started crying — all my kids, they lost everything,” Kieffer said Sunday. “We lost all our stuff. Everything we own is gone.”

Kieffer had been watching her son’s football game Saturday when she learned that their home on the outskirts of Reno was in the evacuation zone. An app the family used to track the fire’s progress had been lagging significantly behind its actual location, she said, so they thought firefighters had kept the blaze from their neighborhood.

Instead, Kieffer, her husband and their four children ages 3 to 16 raced to save their dogs and whatever possessions they could retrieve. Ash rained down, and the wind blew like an oven blast from a wall of flames advancing down the hillside toward their neighborhood, she said.

“I kept looking outside and the flames just kept getting closer and closer every time I looked,” Kieffer said. “I was like, we gotta go like now.”

Eyes watering and throat burning, Kieffer grabbed a handful of clothes, a Bible, her wedding photos and her mother’s ashes. In the frenzy, as firefighters yelled at her family to leave immediately, she said she forgot her family’s birth certificates and was unable to salvage her childhood photos.

The family drove to a friend’s home but had to evacuate again. They learned later Saturday evening that their own home was gone.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo declared a state of emergency in Washoe County and mobilized the Nevada National Guard to support aerial firefighting with two helicopter crews as well as 60 troops to help police safeguard evacuated neighborhoods. Also responding were 800 fire personnel.

Nearly 10,000 customers were without power in Washoe County on Sunday, down from 60,000 on Saturday. Portions of U.S. Route 395, a major north-south highway, were closed due to the fire. Reno, with more than 280,000 residents, is the largest city in Nevada outside of metro Las Vegas.

Washoe County emergency officials opened the Reno-Sparks Convention Center to evacuees, but said they couldn’t bring their pets — small animals and large animals were to be left at two other locations. Casinos in Reno offered discounts on hotel rooms to evacuees.

The fire was so small Saturday morning that it wasn’t even a concern, said Tyler Duvall, who went camping over the weekend. By the next day, his house was in the evacuation zone.

“The wind really blew it up,” Duvall said.

On Saturday alone, 15 new fires popped up across Nevada. Months of dry weather and a record lack of snow this past winter across the American West have created prime fire conditions. Earlier this month, wildfires in eastern Washington state forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area, while three wildfires north of Reno forced more than 13,000 residents from their homes.

Jaida Hargrove’s grandfather, Rick Arrate, lived alone on Peavine Mountain, which overlooks Reno and Sparks. Firefighters used a bulldozer, cut down trees and applied fire retardant in their attempt to contain the flames, Hargrove said.

“They all thought it would be OK,” she said. “And then, in about 30 minutes, the winds just changed and it came way too fast.”

Arrate and the firefighters were quickly forced off the mountain. “All he was able to take with him was his two golden retrievers,” Hargrove said.

Arrate spent Saturday night with Hargrove’s parents, his next steps unknown.

Separate GoFundMe crowdfunding campaigns were set up to assist Arrate and the Kieffer family.

Retired police officer and firefighter Ted Melden has seen his share of Mother Nature’s fury since moving to Reno with his wife earlier this month from Chapin, South Carolina. So far, he has experienced a hailstorm with flash flooding, two different power outages and, now, the second wildfire incident in the region in two weeks.

“Just another natural disaster,” Melden said.

In the two years he lived in South Carolina, Melden said Hurricane Helene knocked over trees in his yard, while a tornado did some damage in his neighborhood.

For now, Melden hasn’t been ordered to leave his home, but he has his bags packed just in case.

“You just have to roll with the flow and be ready,” he said.

David Barb returned from a weekend hunting trip to find the fire had leveled his taxidermy shop, but his house nearby appeared to have been spared thanks to workers with a landscaping company who cut a fire break, he said. His wife was home when the fire started on the other side of the mountain and later evacuated to a friend’s house.

“I’m kind of devastated, but thank God everyone’s safe,” he said Sunday.

The University of Nevada, where many of the 20,000 undergraduates moved into their housing this weekend, was just outside the evacuation zone Sunday.

Two hospitals evacuated patients and the sheriff said his office was keeping a close watch on whether to evacuate the county jail.

The fire moved exceptionally fast Saturday night, jumping over fire trucks and making it difficult for responders to get to hot spots while residents were trying to get out, the sheriff said.

“It was extremely confusing,” Balaam said, describing how changing winds sent the flames in different directions.

Raby reported from Charleston, West Virginia, Brook from New Orleans and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio.

Smoke billows in the distance as a wildfire in Reno, Nev., destroyed homes and caused thousands to evacuate their homes, Sunday, August 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

Smoke billows in the distance as a wildfire burns in Reno, Nev., Sunday, August 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)

Shelley Fabares, an actor who was a fixture on television for decades from her days as a young teenager on “The Donna Reed Show,” through “One Day at a Time” and “Coach,” has died. She was 82.

She died Saturday in Los Angeles, her family said in a statement to The Associated Press. No cause was given.

“To her family and friends, Shelley was a source of love, strength, laughter, and comfort,” her family wrote. “She had a remarkable ability to make people feel welcomed, valued, and cared for.”

Fabares was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1944, and started acting as a young child. Her first television credit came at age 10 when she appeared on “The Loretta Young Show.” Many movies and television shows followed: She acted with Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra and Eva Marie Saint in a Producers Showcase production of “Our Town”; was in the Rosalind Russell movie “The Girl Rush” and the Rock Hudson drama “Never Say Goodbye.” Other early credits include “Annette,” “Captain Midnight” and the “Black Leather Jackets” episode of “The Twilight Zone.”

Her biggest break came when she was cast as Mary Stone on “The Donna Reed Show,” where she was a regular from 1958 through 1963. During that time she also got a recording contract and had two Top 40 hits including “Johnny Angel.” In the early 1960s, she also co-starred in three movies with Elvis Presley: “Girl Happy,” “Spinout” and “Clambake.”

“I think the years on ‘The Donna Reed Show,’ the years from 14 to 19, were so incredibly important,” Fabares told the Los Angeles Times in 1993. “Donna Reed was simply an extraordinary woman, a woman of great strength, kindness, integrity and compassion. I am not trying to make her sound like a saint, but she had the most profound influence on me. I carry her with me today.”

In the late 1970s, Fabares made an impression as Francine Webster on the CBS sitcom “One Day at a Time.” She also played James Caan’s wife in “Brian’s Song.” One of her biggest roles came when she was cast as Christine Armstrong in “Coach,” although the show took a minute to find its audience.

“I did always feel from the very beginning if they could find the right spot for us, this was a show that would last,” she said in the 1993 Los Angeles Times interview.

Fabares married twice, first to producer Lou Adler in 1964. She had been married to “M-A-S-H” actor Mike Farrell since 1984. She was also a devoted advocate for Alzheimer’s awareness, which affected her mother.

In early 1999, a visit to the emergency room for an esophageal bleed revealed that she had progressive liver failure. After spending 22 months on a waiting list, she had liver transplant surgery in October 2000.

In an interview with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles three years after the transplant, she said she'd been “changed by the experience” and was eternally grateful to Farrell who was with her “every step of the way.”

Her family, in their statement, said “we will remember Shelley for her kindness, loyalty, wit, courage, and beautiful spirit. We will miss her deeply — not only as a celebrated performer, but as the loving and extraordinary person she was in our everyday lives.”

FILE - Shelley Fabares, left, poses for a group photo with other Screen Actors Guild Awards committee members, from left, Paul Napier, Chairwoman JoBeth Williams, Vice Chair Daryl Anderson and Scott Bakula during a tasting of the proposed menu and alternatives for the SAG Awards by Lucques Catering, Sept. 29. 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)