Officials say a cigarette smoked by a house sitter or the sitter’s guest started a fire that damaged a Lincoln house.

Firetrucks were dispatched a little after 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. Officials say firefighters had the fire under control in about 15 minutes, after they cut holes in the roof for ventilation and ripped down ceilings in their search for flames.

City Fire Inspector Roger Chapp says a house sitter was keeping watch at the house while the owners were in Mexico.

Chapp says the house sitter had a guest over to the house and that one of the two left a cigarette in an ashtray. Chapp says the cigarette was blown onto the back deck, where the fire began.

Homicide detectives have joined arson investigators at the scene of an Omaha blaze where firefighters found a body.

The body was pulled from a detached garage that caught fire in a neighborhood southwest of downtown. The fire was reported about 2:20 a.m. Thursday.

The body was found after the fire was put out. Police say the body was burned beyond recognition.

A man charged with killing a woman in Omaha in 1980 has been ordered held without bond.

Fifty-one-year-old Oscar Hernandez is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 29-year-old Vickie DeAnda. Her body was found in an Omaha apartment on Sept. 11, 1980.

Hernandez was taken into custody by U.S. border patrol agents earlier this month while he was trying to cross from Mexico along the New Mexico border. He was brought back to Nebraska on Tuesday.

Hernandez made his first court appearance on Wednesday, and a Douglas County judge ordered him held on no bond. A preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 17.

A Nebraska inmate has filed a contempt motion in federal court, saying state Department of Correctional Services officials have reneged on a settlement to accommodate the religious and cultural needs of Native American inmates.

In the 2005 settlement, signed by a federal judge, prison officials agree to allow Native American inmates time for religious education and worship ceremonies and use traditional, ceremonial foods such as fry bread, buffalo, corn and “berry dish” in their ceremonies.

The motion filed Monday by Michael Joseph Sims says state prison leaders have not allowed those ceremonial foods since the agreement was signed in 2005, among other things.

State Corrections Department spokeswoman Dawn-Renee Smith declined to comment on the motion or answer questions about whether Native American inmates are given ceremonial foods.

Nebraska is sending staff from the state emergency management agency and two National Guard helicopters to help firefighters with two wildfires burning in Dawes County in western Nebraska.

The U.S. Forest Service says both fires were started by lightning from a thunderstorm on Tuesday, and are burning on public and privately owned lands.

One fire is between Harrison and Crawford and has burned about 250 acres of timber in rough canyons and inaccessible areas. There are three homes in the area, but no evacuations have been ordered.

The other fire is about 15 miles southeast of Crawford and has burned about 150 acres in rough timber areas with rugged canyons and grass.

No injuries are reported.

A man has been sentenced to 40 to 65 years in prison for shooting a man who died from other gunshot wounds in Lincoln.

DeAnthony Love was sentenced for first-degree assault and using a firearm to commit a felony on Tuesday in Lancaster County District Court.

Love was accused of shooting Dwayne Greer at a party in July 2011. Officials say Jermaine Jackman shot Greer in the back. Jackman, Love and DaVaughn Johnson jumped in a car and started to flee. But they came back, and Love got out of the car and shot Greer in the hip area. Greer died at the hospital.

Jackman pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. Johnson pleaded no contest to accessory to murder.