Firefighters on Monday were still trying to tame a wildfire northwest of Reno, Nev., that has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes and that is keeping many more ready to run from the flames.

The blaze, known as the Hawk fire, has burned more than 15,000 acres since it began Saturday in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Firefighters had contained 27 percent of the fire, officials said at a community meeting on Monday night.

Officials said that seven people had been injured, including three firefighters, and that 32 homes had been destroyed and six others damaged.

About 23,000 people had been ordered to evacuate, and an additional 40,000 had been warned that they might need to leave at a moment’s notice.

By Monday night, evacuation orders had been downgraded to warnings in some areas and the number of displaced residents had fallen to about 14,900 after some were allowed to return home, said Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District Chief Richard Edwards. He added that officials had reopened sections of U.S. Route 395, along the fire’s northern edge.

Throughout Monday, power had been restored to about 3,000 households, leaving 6,000 still without electricity and 250 without gas, said Scott Kaufmann, NV Energy’s vice president for transmission, at the community meeting.

Mayor Hillary Schieve of Reno urged people to return to their homes only after they received an all-clear, in order to prevent further strain on emergency agencies and to lessen risks for rescuers.

“We end up putting others’ lives at risk, because they got to go in and help you,” she said. “So when we ask you to do it, we’re also asking you to help save other lives.”

Some people had also illegally flown drones over the fire, posing a risk to firefighters and ground crews, and tried to hike in freshly burned areas, the authorities said.

Marcus Butler, 30, a Lemmon Valley resident, evacuated his home Saturday and stayed for two nights at a Hampton Inn in Sparks, adjacent to Reno.

On Monday morning, he showed up to the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, which is serving as an evacuation shelter, to see if he could stay in his car in the parking lot. He hadn’t seen smoke in the sky, but his home remained in a no-go zone. “Maybe the fire’s hidden and we can’t see it,” he said.

On Sunday evening, firefighters had expected the blaze to reach “pockets of dense fuels” as it advanced toward Reno, a city of almost 300,000 near the border of Nevada and California.

But on Monday, local officials expressed optimism in their efforts to handle the fire, particularly at the southern end of the blaze, where firefighters largely stopped it from advancing.

“Fire behavior was less extreme than anticipated in some areas, allowing crews to hold established lines and reposition resources to reinforce suppression efforts,” city officials said in a morning update.

Extreme heat, dry conditions and strong winds have helped the Hawk fire expand. It is the second large blaze in the area in the past three weeks.

Arid conditions have propelled an active wildfire season across the American West this summer. In Washington State, hundreds of homes and more than 400,000 acres burned. In Oregon, a record 2.4 million acres have burned in 2026, according to state authorities.

Mr. Butler is wrapping up his job as a summer camp manager in Portola, Calif., and is set to move home to New England. “More floods, but no more wildfires,” he said. “I know it’s flooding out there, but I’d rather take the floods instead of the fires.”

In Nevada, hot and dry conditions, fuel and mountainous terrain will complicate efforts to suppress the flames. Winds were expected to pick up Monday afternoon.

The fire’s western portion remained a challenge, and firefighters were working to keep the blaze out of flatter terrain. City officials said on Monday night that most of the contained area was along the fire’s south end, where some residents had been allowed to return.

Officials said that the fire was caused by a person but that it was not yet clear whether it had been intentional.

More than 800 personnel, as well as canine search teams, are assisting with the effort to stop the blaze, including firefighters from at least 15 other states, Australia and New Zealand. The National Guard and the local police are also helping safeguard neighborhoods.

Barry and Karen Lewis had been eyeing the Hawk fire’s smoke since midday Saturday as they prepared to evacuate from their Lemmon Valley home. When they got evacuation alerts, they quickly left in their R.V.

The husband and wife have lived there since 2010 and said they had assumed that being in a desert area meant fewer wildfire risks.

“All the movies, you see the fires in the forest,” said Mr. Lewis, 72.

Judson Jones, Livia Albeck-Ripka and Francesca Regalado contributed reporting.