The Stallion Fire burned close to communities in the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation. Thankfully, firefighters kept the blaze contained to the hills south of Nixon.
Tribal Chairman Steven Wadsworth says their Pyramid Lake Health Clinic served as operations command early on.
“Before, when we got into that stage, we had actually contacted some of the departments, including the clinic, saying, okay, get your essential things out. Just in case the building burns. You know, get your medications out just in case. Put them somewhere else,” he says.
Evacuation centers were set up at both the Wadsworth Community Building and Food Distribution Program.
Both sat mostly empty.
“I would say less than ten total [people] across all the shelters,” Wadsworth says. “Being a small community, a lot of people just went to their family members."
Wadsworth says the biggest issue the tribe faced was communication with other agencies. NV Energy shut off power without warning, affecting evacuation plans. Nevada Highway Patrol also closed State Route 446 from Nixon to Sutcliffe off and on. The tribe is navigating a better way to coordinate with these agencies in the future.
Heavy rainstorms last week did support firefighting efforts but also created more problems for the tribe. They now have to inspect many dirt roads for flood damage -- and extra precautions were needed in Sutcliffe.
“There's no vegetation. So any rain runoff we're going to get is potential flooding,” Wadsworth says. “So, we had to make preparations to stockpile food and water at the community center in Sutcliffe just to make sure that they had the supplies they needed in case they got isolated."
It's still unknown whether the Stallion Fire destroyed anything on tribal land. The tribe still needs to assess whether a part of history is altered forever.
“I can tell from a couple of our burned areas that we did have some petroglyphs coming through, so we have to get the assessment on those to see,” Wadsworth says. “That's tribal resources. That's our history. And some of it could be permanently scarred now.”
Pyramid Lake is now open to permit holders. Visitors should drive carefully on dirt roads in that area, since not all of them have been inspected for flood damage.
