Joseph Frank was one of the first firefighters to respond to a massive wildfire that broke out on the Walker River Reservation in June 2024.

Temperatures that month were well above average, according to the National Weather Service. It was 90 degrees in Schurz, Nevada that day — 5 degrees hotter than normal for the area — when a lead-acid battery from a Bureau of Indian Affairs building overheated and “kind of blew up,” said Frank.

Fueled by vegetation cooked by record heat and drought in the months prior, the fire quickly spread across 65 acres. It took two days to fully contain, cutting off a portion of U.S. Route 95 and causing the evacuation of all the tribe’s administrative offices.

“We ended up calling out all the municipalities to help us, just because of how intense it was,” Fra

See Full Page