(Reuters) – A wildfire fanned by high winds destroyed 22 homes in a wooded area of northern Nevada on Friday, among them a mountain property belonging to the owner of a famous brothel in the state.
Dennis Hof, the owner of the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in the Carson City area, revealed in a message on his Twitter page that one of his houses was destroyed by the blaze, which fire officials said had scorched 2,000 acres (809 hectares) in the area of Washoe Valley just south of Reno.
Hof, who is profiled along with workers at his legal brothel in the television series “Cathouse” on cable channel HBO, posted a photo of the house reduced to rubble.
More than 360 firefighters were battling the blaze, which has been dubbed the “Little Valley Fire” and has destroyed 22 homes and 17 outbuildings, officials said on the fire tracking website InciWeb.
The cause of the fire, which was first spotted early on Friday, being investigated, they added.
The blaze, located near the border with California and northeast of Lake Tahoe, has spread erratically because of the high winds driving it, and complicated firefighters’ efforts to contain it, officials said.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
