``Until the sun comes up and gets some heat on it, it's not going to do anything,'' Larry Benham, incident commander, said as night fell Monday on the 1,500-acre Robber's Fire.
A Girl Scout camp and a youth correctional facility were evacuated and homeowners ordered out of about 15 homes about a mile and a half from the fire lines. Authorities said the blaze was sparked by a truck crash on state Highway 158, about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas.
Officials said flames sweeping through scrub brush, pinon, juniper, ponderosa and bristlecone pines in the steep canyon were not immediately threatening any structures.
About 100 firefighters, aided by a water-dropping helicopter and firefighting air tankers, spent Monday afternoon trying to prevent the fire from cresting an 11,000-foot ridge and spreading southwest through tinder-dry brush toward 350 expensive mountain homes in Kyle Canyon.
Benham said they were aided by winds pushing the fire away from homes.
The number of firefighters could triple Tuesday with the addition of crews from Idaho, Utah and northern Nevada, Benham said. Air tankers were flown in from San Bernardino, Calif., and Cedar City, Utah.
``I have a lot of faith in the law enforcement and firefighters,'' said Barney Ales, a Las Vegas lawyer who has lived in Kyle Canyon for 17 years.
Waiting for a police escort to retrieve photographs and family documents late Monday, Ales said he could not recall a fire ever burning so close to his home.
``I'm concerned, but I wouldn't say frightened,'' he said. ``It's one of the issues we deal with.''
Federal, state and local firefighters swarmed the hilly area off the highway, also known as Deer Creek Highway, shortly after the fire was reported about 12:30 p.m. Monday.
Camp Stimpson, the Girl Scout camp, and the Spring Mountain Youth Camp for juveniles were evacuated within hours. There were about 100 youngsters at the two camps, Las Vegas police said.
Mark Blankensop, an assistant fire chief for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, said that as a precaution authorities ordered the evacuation of people living in the 15 homes in the Deer Creek subdivision.
``This is the fire we didn't want,'' Blankensop said, referring to the drought conditions in the area.
No wide-scale evacuation was ordered, but authorities asked the 2,500 people who live in the Mount Charleston area not to stay. Kyle Canyon Road was closed at U.S. Highway 95.
William Kourim, a Clark County fire chief, said officials feared residents would be trapped if the fire reached the Kyle Canyon communities of Rainbow, Old Town, Echo and Cathedral Rock.
``It's a narrow, box canyon, one way in and one way out,'' he said.
Kourim said helicopter evacuations would be impossible because of the terrain and altitude.
The local Red Cross was deployed to assist people.
Officials said the fire began when a truck crashed after its brakes overheated coming down the mountain about two miles north of Kyle Canyon Road.
The truck driver, Catherine Teddy, 37, of Las Vegas, was hospitalized. Her condition was not available. But several people who spoke with her at the scene said her injuries did not appear life-threatening.
The mountain road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest is also known as the Deer Creek Highway. It runs past the historic Robber's Roost hideout and boasts roadside viewpoints with wide vistas of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge north of Las Vegas.
