LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — One person was found dead after crews extinguished a brush fire that broke out and spread to a home in Henderson Wednesday morning, according to the fire chief.

Flames could be seen pouring out of the Whitney Mesa area near Sunset Road and Arroyo Grande Boulevard, just west of Stephanie Street.

Firefighters received a report about an outside fire around 4:30 a.m., Henderson Fire Chief Scott Vivier told reporters. By the time crews arrived, the fire had grown to 2-3 acres, damaged one home and spread to the landscaping of a second home.

“Because the call occurred early in the morning, most residents were asleep, and that’s what allowed the fire to grow to the size before it was recognized,” the chief said. “Residents initially woke up seeing it, and they started to self-evacuate.”

Two alarms were called for the response, according to Vivier. Crews contained the fire to the area of origin and extinguished it with no further damage. Clark County and Bureau of Land Management firefighters provided assistance.

During a primary search of the area, authorities found one person dead. The cause of death is unknown, and Henderson Police are investigating.

About 50 residents in the neighborhood were asked to evacuate because of the heavy smoke, Vivier said. They have since been allowed to return to their homes. He added that the Henderson Fire Department has preexisting plans for evacuating residents in response to any fires in the Whitney Mesa area.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time, the chief said, and remains under investigation as well. Crews were expected to remain on scene throughout the day to clean up the space and make sure there were no flare-ups. There was no estimate on when Whitney Mesa Park could reopen to the public.

The Bureau of Land Management has been requested to provide assistance. Vivier said their expertise would be used to remove dangerous brush and trees that had been damaged in the fire.

Green Valley High School is also located nearby, off Arroyo Grande and Warm Springs Road. A Clark County School District spokesperson said the school began classes at their normal start times.

The Whitney Mesa area last suffered a significant brush fire in 2016, when amateur fireworks from a Fourth of July celebration in the Nature Preserve sparked large flames. No injuries were reported in that incident.

The purchase of a New Mexico ranch nearing 1 million acres tipped the scales for Stan Kroenke, who is now the largest private landowner in America.

Kroenke, 78, topped Land Report’s annual list of the country’s 100 largest landowners, leading a pack of billionaires eager to beef up their rural portfolios.

Kroenke is worth an estimated $26.8 billion, according to Bloomberg, largely thanks to his ownership of sport franchises like the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets and the UK’s Arsenal Football Club — as well as several of the teams’ sports arenas.

Kroenke, a Missouri native, is married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke.

Kroenke recently acquired more than 937,000 acres of noncontiguous New Mexico ranchland, rounding out his total land holdings to more than 2.7 million acres across the American West and Canada.

Land Report confirmed the December deal, which spans four New Mexico counties. The off-market transaction is the largest single land purchase in the US since 2011.

The price of Kroenke’s New Mexico purchase remains under wraps, but Land Report estimated the former value of his ranch holdings at $3.9 billion.

Kroenke made headlines in 2016 when he snapped up Texas’ historic Waggoner Ranch — the 535,000-acre property is largest piece of unbroken ranchland in the Lone Star State. Other acquisitions include massive ranches in Montana and Nevada.

In addition to rolling rural plains, Kroenke owns an estimated 60 million square feet of commercial holdings, the New York Times reported, including sports venues in California and Denver.

The investor’s busy two decades of ranch acquisitions has set him far above other high-profile billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

Bezos’ holdings ranked 21st in Land Report’s report, spanning close to half a million acres largely concentrated in Texas. Gates trailed behind in 44th place, whose prolific farmland purchases span roughly 275,000 acres.

An uptick in rural land grabs among billionaires over the past decade was hastened along in recent years by the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic and the so-called “Yellowstone Effect.”