On Tuesday, August 9th, Washoe County Board of Commissioners accepted the Declaration of State of Emergency for northern Washoe County by  County Manager John Slaughter.

Washoe County says the State of Emergency was declared after multiple fires broke out over the last two weeks and will stay in place for as long as required. Washoe County Code 65.320 allows the County Manager to declare a state of emergency when any man-made or natural event or circumstance is causing or threatening loss of life, injury to person or property, human suffering or financial loss to the extent that extraordinary measures must be taken to protect the public health, safety and welfare.

“Due to the high volume of wild land fires this summer and the expectation that our area will remain extremely dry moving forward, I decided to declare this State of Emergency for the northern areas of Washoe County,” Slaughter said. “Declaring this State of Emergency does not mean our county or citizens are in any immediate danger, but it does allow our Public Safety responders to more quickly access additional resources that may be needed from outside of Washoe County to respond in case of a high scale fire emergency. The State of Emergency will remain in place at least through next weekend when the region is expected to experience extreme temperatures.”

County Commissioners also approved a ratification of a license agreement with the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) for livestock sheltering. The agreement provides the UNR Valley Equestrian Facility as a temporary shelter residents can take their animals during an evacuation.

 “When neighborhoods are threatened by wild land fire and other disasters, we must make provisions to provide shelters for residents, their small pets, and safe refuge for livestock,” Washoe County Emergency Manager Aaron Kenneston said. “We are grateful to UNR for agreeing to provide temporary sheltering for livestock upon request of County Officials during times when the Livestock Event Center is not available.”

(Washoe County Board of Commissioners contributed to this story)