Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz postponed a planned Monday evening rally in Reno after a massive wildfire south of the city launched Northern Nevada into a state of emergency and prompted the evacuation of thousands.
Instead, the governor stopped by the Democratic Party of Washoe County headquarters, where volunteers had collected pet food, diapers, water and other supplies for displaced victims of the uncontained Davis Fire, which sparked Sunday at a regional park in Washoe Valley and has grown to about 10 square miles and required about 20,000 people to evacuate, including parts of South Reno.
“The local, the state and the federal work hand in hand. It is really critical you’ve got partners working together,” Walz said. “The biggest thing is protection of life. And then a family loses their home, and it truly is a home, not a house, we know that is very challenging.”
Though the rally didn’t happen as planned, Walz told visitors at the headquarters that he appreciated the efforts of first responders and the campaign “has an opportunity to come back again.”
Walz then toured an incident command center at Galena High School, bringing pizza to first responders and visiting with local officials. Walz left Reno to attend a campaign fundraiser in Las Vegas on Tuesday. His visit to Nevada is part of a multistate swing of battleground states to drum up support for Democrats ahead of Tuesday night’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
During the nearly two-and-a-half-hour Reno visit, Walz made time to speak with Aaron Sims, the chair of the state’s rural Democratic caucus whose family home was burned in the fire.
Though the Nevada GOP criticized the visit as a “political ploy” and a waste of resources, Sims said the presence of Walz showed a level of care that’s often lacking in politics.
“Instead of canceling the entire trip, he chose to come out here. He could have gone to a different state last minute. They could have pulled together 10,000 people, probably in Arizona or something, and had a rally out there,” Sims said. “He decided to tour the fire area — to me, that speaks volumes.”
As of Monday evening, the Davis wildfire had burned at least 14 structures and was 0 percent contained. Classes were canceled almost districtwide in the Washoe County School District on Monday, and nine additional schools near the fire will remain closed Tuesday.
Conditions are expected to worsen Tuesday when a red flag warning indicating that the humidity, wind speeds and temperatures that lead to an increased risk of wildfires goes into effect for the region.
When the plane carrying the governor landed, billowing clouds of smoke covered the horizon. At the incident command center in South Reno, the air quality monitoring service Purple Air showed an index of 156, an “unhealthy” rating where people may start to experience negative health effects.
While Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill, a Democrat, visited the command center and later had a conversation with Walz, flakes of ash fell from the sky.
Hill told The Nevada Independent that with more than 600 firefighters on the ground, resources have poured into the region from nearby states, including Idaho, Utah and Oregon. The county is working through regional and federal requirements to ensure it can get resources to address its needs, she said.
Hill added that she thought it was great that Walz saw the situation in person. She said he equated it to the floods Minnesota experiences and said it was vital to ensure efforts to address climate disasters are funded.
Though insurance isn’t an immediate need right now, Hill said she brought up the rising costs of fire insurance rates and families who aren’t able to get coverage for their homes.
“Insurance rates, fire insurance rates, are going to skyrocket … and it’s going to make it unable for people to carry a mortgage,” Hill said. “We need to really talk about how we can support … the insurance piece, future policies and he was very open to that.”
Hill also spoke with Walz about the county’s plans to seek legislation at the state level to give the insurance commissioner more support in ensuring home protection for residents.
“We’re just dealing with bigger disasters in our communities, and it takes all of us coming together to find the solutions and support each other,” Hill said. “I’m glad he took the time to see what’s happening on the ground.”
