Our summer photographer Kia Rastar went by the Northwest Reno Library earlier this week at 2325 Robb Dr. where he took portraits of fire evacuees there as well as residents facing power outages and Red Cross staff helping with the process.
Evacuations have now been lifted and residents can return to the Verdi area. Last night, NV Energy said it had restored power to 4,500 customers, with only 1,800 still without power.
“I was living at a motel when the fire started and the smoke came over to us,” Dominick (in center photo), 34, said. “What happened is that we were evacuated and then now we are over here, we are in the library, and they said we can get a cot for tonight.”
“Me and my fiancee were in the motel and the power went out and I smelled smoke, and so we were just trying to get out of it” Princess (middle right), 33 said. She says they were able to get food at a food bank and were trying to figure out their next steps, including taking care of their service puppy dog.
Sarah, 24, (middle left) had been closely monitoring power updates and whether her home was in the evacuation zone. She spent a night at home without power, woke up and went to work. “At this point, our power is still out so I’m here back from work. I am in the library because there is no Internet at home and also I can’t get our garage door to open with the clicker.”
Sarah was reaching out to friends to find a place to sleep.
“We are here because we didn't have power,” Mahmoud (upper left) said. “We spent last night at our home and today we came here… Except for the lack of power, we don't have any other problem in our house, so we will go back home tonight,” he said.
A 62-year-old father (bottom right) who had spent the previous night using candles was at the library to pick up his wife and kids, who were doing homework for their online classes. They were going to eat out before returning home. “This is a really nice place for them to spend their time,” he said.
