There was definitely some red, a little white and some blue in this Fourth of July sunset photo taken by Topaz Ranch Estates resident John Flaherty.
Genoa, Nev. — For the first time in three days, air quality remained good through the night, according to the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection gauge in Ranchos Aspen Park. That’s a pretty good sign that firefighters are getting a handle on the East Fork Fire burning southeast of Gardnerville.
Emergency personnel are working a collision on Highway 50 and Cave Rock Drive this morning. The Nevada Highway Patrol lists the accident at 6:27 a.m. Expect emergency personnel up there for the next hour at least while the collision is cleared.
Lake Tahoe saw the usual Fourth of July craziness with a big melee reported at Nevada Beach around 4-5 p.m. Officials reported the beach cleared out around 8 p.m. There will be a lot of follow up on on that front this week.
I believe that Tahoe saw not only the usual visitors from California escaping the Central Valley, but also some from Washington state fleeing the heat dome. It’s just a casual observation not backed up by much in the way of fact, just a few calls on the scanner involving Washington residents.
I have no word on the status of a man severely burned when his motor home caught fire along Highway 88 south of Kimmerling on Saturday. He was helicoptered to Renown Regional Medical Center and may well have gone on to the Davis Burn Center from there.
The government and many businesses are shut down today because July 4th fell on a Sunday. I’ve got some stuff around the house I have to do today, so if you need something drop me a line, but it might be a bit before I get back to you.
On Friday morning, I was quick-backgrounding MontBleu and stopped before I got to where it was the Park Tahoe. I heard from a half-dozen folks that Caesars didn’t build the hotel and plan on doing a story-correction in Thursday’s edition. That story is going to be a lot more interesting than the original.
Speaking of research, today marks 14 years since a five-day heat wave in 2007 set new records. It’s going to be hot this week, but not 107-degree hot, like July 5, 2007, or 109-degree hot, like the following day.
Expect the high today to hit 96 under sunny skies with light and variable winds shifting to the west at 5-10 mph this afternoon. Thunderstorms have disappeared from the forecast until next weekend as we continue to bake.
Kurt Hildebrand is editor of The Record-Courier. Contact him at khildebrand@recordcourier.com
