Three Reno homes destroyed in fire

RENO - A fire started by teenagers playing with fireworks raced up a dry hillside and destroyed three homes in northeast Reno Tuesday night, but scores of firefighters quickly snuffed out the blaze and no one was hurt, fire officials said.

Three houses were lost, a fourth was heavily damaged and a fifth slightly damaged after the fire was reported at 6:07 p.m. in a residential neighborhood north of McCarran Boulevard just east of U.S. Highway 395, Reno Fire Division Chief Larry Farr said.

Investigators located eyewitnesses and the two boys in their early teens promptly admitted their role in the fire, Farr said.

"The cause of the fire was juveniles playing with fireworks. We talked to the kids and they fessed up," he told The Associated Press.

Fire investigators will discuss the case with local prosecutors, but the boys remained in the custody of their parents Tuesday night, Farr said.

More than 50 firefighters responded to the blaze, which engulfed the first home within minutes while engines were en route, he said.

"It started out as a brush fire ... But it wasn't like it was a wildland fire. It started on the slope of a hill" off Clear Acre Lane a few miles north of downtown Reno, Farr said.

"While we were en route, another call came in that said houses were envolved and when our first engine arrived, two houses were envolved and two houses were threatened," he said.

Six adults and two youths have been displaced because of the fire, Farr said.