As firefighters from several agencies neared 50-percent containment Saturday of the Ramsey wildfire north of Silver Springs, fire managers got a more accurate view of it and downgraded its size.
"We were able to fly over it with a GPS (global positioning system) unit and map it more accurately - we now estimate it at 5,700 acres," Bureau of Land Management fire information officer Nick Zufelt said Saturday evening. He said less than 1,000 acres of that area had burned Saturday.
During the initial effort Friday to battle the lightning-caused Ramsey fire, the blaze was estimated at 7,000-10,000 acres.
The Ramsey fire is expected to be contained Monday and controlled Tuesday, Zufelt said.
Afternoon winds were hampering containment efforts on several Northern Nevada fires Saturday.
''Cooler temperatures and no lightning are helping us today. High winds are not helping,'' Zufelt told the Associated Press.
Firefighters also were hampered by steep terrain in the Ramsey blaze, which is centered in the Virginia Range about four miles northwest of Silver Springs.
No homes were damaged or threatened in either the Ramsey fire or the 7,000-acre Kelly Creek blaze about 40 miles northeast of Winnemucca in Humboldt County, he said. However, a firefighter suffered a broken arm in the Lyon County blaze.
Fire officer Terry Reed said lightning touched off at least five wildfires Friday in the Winnemucca area.
The largest was the Kelly Creek fire near Midas, which was threatening Lahontan cutthroat trout habitat and a federal wilderness study area.
Firefighters were unsure when they would be able to contain the blaze.
Elsewhere, a 2,870-acre fire near Nixon northeast of Reno and a 1,076-acre fire near Doyle, Calif., north of Reno were both 95 percent contained Saturday.
The largest wildfire of the week - the 7,690-acre Antelope Valley fire north of Reno - was 85 percent contained.
The blaze burned within 200 feet of homes Wednesday night and prompted a voluntary evacuation of residents.
A smaller fire east of Carson City was knocked down Friday but may have flared again briefly Saturday.
The Sand fire consumed about 2 acres in Brunswick Canyon along the Carson River before BLM fire crews controlled it, a fire dispatcher said. Firefighters were still patrolling the area Saturday when a fire observation and command aircraft spotted smoke in the canyon near the Bidwell Mine about 2 p.m. The Bidwell fire was confined to about a half acre, the dispatcher said.
(Martin Griffith, an Associated Press writer, contributed to this story.)
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