Fire burning north of Reno consumes alm ost 48,000 acres

The fires responsible for sending smoke into the Lake Tahoe Basin and Northern Nevada have burned 47,876 acres since being started by lightning strikes on Friday morning.

Known as the Virginia Mountains Complex, the five separate wildland fires include the Anderson (13,196 acres), Sage (4,238 acres), Seven Lakes (3,063 acres), Rock (2,293 acres) and Tule (27,379 acres) Fires. All are burning on mostly BLM land within about 20 miles of each other in an arc about 35 miles north of Reno.

Incremental release of resources is likely over the next several days due to challenging fire conditions that exceed resource capabilities. At this time, 791 firefighting personnel are assigned to the fires.

Fire behavior was less active on Monday, allowing skies at Lake Tahoe to clear. On Tuesday there is a Red Flag Warning in the fire area calling for stronger winds and drier air, A Red Flag Warning indicates critical wildland fuel conditions and a high potential for erratic fire behavior and rapid growth. Relative humidity may drop to single digits, and winds of up to 45 miles an hour are possible on ridges.