Fires burn 100,000 acres in Nevada, near containment

WINNEMUCCA - Firefighters were confident that by Friday they would fully contain two complexes of fires that have burned more than 100,000 acres of northern Nevada rangeland.

No homes or ranches have been damaged but five minor injuries have been reported in the course of fighting the fires that broke out four days ago.

The Bilk Creek fires 50 miles north of Winnemucca were 90 percent contained Wednesday night and federal officials predicted they'd be fully contained on Thursday.

But winds picked up again, pushing containment back to 85 percent before firefighters regained the upper hand Thursday afternoon.

The series of lightning-sparked fires north of Winnemucca has burned an estimated 87,888 acres.

''It's taken a little longer than expected, but with a little luck we think the Bilk Creek fire will be completely contained'' by Friday morning, said Dave Murphy, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management.

The other series of fires, dubbed the Prince Royal complex about 3 miles east of Imlay, was 66 percent contained, Murphy said.

''There's still one hot spot but we hope to have containment (Friday) night on that,'' he said.

That fire activity was located in the upper elevations of the north end of the Humboldt range, the BLM said. The Prince Royal complex has burned 14,530 acres.