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ELKO, Nev. (AP) — The Latest on a wildfire that tapped eight hikers and sheriff's deputy before they were escorted to safety in northeast Nevada's Ruby Mountains (all times local):
4:45 p.m.
Authorities say a northeast Nevada wildfire that trapped eight hikers and a sheriff's deputy in the Ruby Mountains near Elko before they were escorted to safety started near a shooting range.
Forest Service spokeswoman Erica Hupp said Monday no residential homes have been destroyed but some structures have been lost.
She said the official cause of the fire that was reported about 9 a.m. Sunday remains under investigation, but she confirmed its origin was in an area of private land behind the Spring Creek shooting range at the base of the mountains.
Hupp says there's no cell service in the Lamoille Canyon surrounded by wilderness about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the Utah line so they've been unable to provide an update on the size of the fire. The service said earlier Monday it had burned an estimated 7 square miles (18 sq. kilometers).
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2:10 p.m.
A California couple who saw homes destroyed in a wildfire near Santa Rosa a year ago was among the campers and hikers who were escorted to safety in northeast Nevada after being trapped by a wildland blaze in Elko County's Ruby Mountains.
George Tutwiler told the Elko Daily Free Press on Monday they had to avoid boulders that had fallen on the road out of Lamoille Canyon Sunday night as they followed a caravan of eight to 10 other vehicles with a sheriff's deputy and Bureau of Land Management official.
Dixie Tutwiler says it was exciting but she was worried that flying embers would land on their camper and set it afire.
George Tutwiler says he became nervous when the caravan had to stop briefly near the exit of the canyon to wait for water trucks and first-responders to clear the road. He says it was a reminder of how many people lost everything in the Santa Rosa fires last year.
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12:30 p.m.
One hundred-foot-tall flames (30 meters) burned across a popular northeastern Nevada recreation area, trapping eight hikers and a sheriff's deputy at the top of the Ruby Mountains' Lamoille Canyon before they could be escorted to safety.
A federal multi-agency team took over management of the wildfire Monday and multiple aircraft were dropping retardant on the flames about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of the Utah line.
The 12-mile road (160 kilometers) from Elko to Lamoille Canyon remains closed. No injuries have been reported, but authorities say an undetermined number of structures have been lost.
The fire that broke out about 9 a.m. Sunday near Spring Creek has burned an estimated 7 square miles (18 sq. kilometers).
The recreation area remains under an evacuation order and structure protection is in place in Lamoille along the base of the mountains.
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