There was a lot of activity in Mineral County last Saturday, starting with a high-speed chase that ended in Walker Lake followed by a house fire in Hawthorne that evening. Fortunately, no one was injured in either case. Here’s what happened:

Fire on H Street in Hawthorne

Last Saturday evening (February 26), the Mineral County Fire Department responded to a house fire on the H Street block in Hawthorne. Fortunately, no one was in the home at the time of the fire but the back third of the house was burned. It started with the electrical in one of the back rooms.

“Nothing was plugged in; we think it started within the wiring of the house,” says Mineral County Fire Chief Chris Lawrence. He believes that the home was built in the 1930s and has been added on to.

Lawrence doesn’t know how that fire could’ve been prevented unless one has an electrician come out and check on the wiring regularly but advises that it’s important to keep the interior and exterior of your home clear so that emergency responders can enter and exit safely in the event of a fire.

The fire began at around 9:30 p.m. on the evening of February 26 and was extinguished by about 10:15 p.m.

Car Chase at Walker Lake

The morning of February 26, local police enforcement apprehended a man in a Jeep that crashed on the side of the road in Walker Lake. Apparently, the chase started around US-50 and Fort Churchill. Carson City police originally picked up the case when the vehicle failed to yield to a stop and then handed it off to the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office. The Nevada Highway Patrol received an ATL (Attempt to Locate) agency assist at 10:09 a.m. before the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office apprehended the suspect at around 11:40 a.m.

That afternoon, the MCSO Judge Sheet Report shows that a Jorge Romero was charged and booked into the Mineral County NV Detention Center with conspiracy to elude, evading or failing to stop, refusing to show registration expiration, and resisting arrest.

After multiple attempts, the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office could not be reached for comment or to confirm the details of this incident.