All around us those once green hills are turning brown. It won't be long before the brush and grass are tinder dry when the slightest spark can set off a big fire.

"We all know in Nevada when it's green in the spring, it's going to turn brown here sometime," says the state's fire management officer Mike Dondero. His estimate and that of others we talked with? A couple of weeks. "That's going to be prime time. If we do get ignitions we could get large fires."

Of course, if your home was in the path of yesterday's fire in Washoe Valley, the fire season is already here. Craig Spurgeon could look out from his home on a hillside on the east side of the valley Friday and watch the power company crews repair damage to their lines, believed to be the cause of Thursday's fire.

His property rode out the fire just fine. Thanks to his efforts and the appetite of the sheep he keeps for training the collie dogs he raises, he had ample defensible space.

After yesterday, he views the coming fire season with little concern.
"I've already had mine. I think I'm good," he says, noting the sheep left little to burn and with little rain expected there shouldn't be much growth for the rest of the year anyway.

He may be confident. The rest of us would be well advised to keep an eye on the weather and the surrounding countryside. Dondero says those late spring rains gave us a double crop of cheat grass, our primary ignition fuel.

Fire season will be a little late in arriving this year. That doesn't mean it won't be dangerous.

"I would say it's going to be a delayed fire season," he says. "The potential in the state of Nevada it's always difficult to predict. What happens to us is we get lightning storms coming through and it will start multiple fires and if you run out of resources when you're in the middle of these multiple fire events, that's when you get large fires."

And with good weather finally here and a holiday approaching he advises caution and staying on the roads when visiting our wildlands. Dry lighting storms may not show up for a couple of weeks. We can start a wildland fire anytime.