Seven wildfires began Monday and Tuesday across Northern California as warm temperatures and dry lightning strikes combined for dangerous conditions early in the year’s fire season.
The dry lightning strikes began Monday and were expected to continue through Tuesday as a high clouds pass through the area. Influenced by monsoonal moisture from the Southwest desert and remnants from Tropical Storm Alberto making its way up from the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said they expected atmospheric instability throughout the day.
“There are a lot of fires burning right now,” said Isaac Sanchez, CalFire deputy chief of communications. “I’ll put it in a phrase: busy, busy, busy.”
Across the state, there are a few more than a dozen and a half fires of more than 10 acres burning, and likely many more small ones, Sanchez said. Though CalFire has responded to more than 2,400 vegetation fires since the beginning of the year, activity has increased over the past ten days to two weeks, he added.
CalFire is still investigating the causes of the fires and tracks lightning as a potential fire starter, Sanchez explained.
“Just because there’s a lightning strike doesn’t mean there’s a fire,” he said. “Whenever there’s ignition in the environment, it’s always a concern.”
There’s also “always concern” about fires spreading or igniting, Sanchez added, especially with the current warm, dry conditions. “That’s a recipe for a large fire.”
In Fresno County, three wildfires broke out Monday afternoon after more than 1,000 dry lightning strikes in three hours.
The Bolt Fire had burned 857 acres and was 0% contained as of 1:33 a.m. Tuesday morning, prompting evacuation warnings in zones K75 and K93 but no evacuation orders.
The Flash Fire was 15% contained and 1,600 acres as of 9:04 a.m. Tuesday. Evacuation warnings were posted in zones K72, K75 and K93. The Muscat fire grew to 105 acres as of 6:45 a.m. Tuesday morning and was 0% contained.
A fourth blaze — the Hog Fire — broke out in Fresno County just after 9 a.m. Tuesday and grew to 173 acres as of 1:31 p.m.
The Amoruso Fire in Placer County started shortly after 5 p.m. Monday, burning 502 acres as of 9:04 a.m. Tuesday; firefighters had gotten to 80% containment around the blaze.
The 1-2 Fire in San Joaquin County began Monday evening around 5 p.m., and as of 6:47 a.m. Tuesday morning had spread to 215 acres. The CalFire incident dashboard noted that there was lightning reported in the area where that blaze began; it was 0% contained as of Tuesday morning.
Inland, the Apache Fire in Butte County had reached 691 acres as of 11:32 a.m. Tuesday since it began burning Monday evening. Evacuation orders had been called for zones 865, 866, 868, 869, 884, 885, 886 and 887, while warnings were in place for zones 867 and 883.
Meanwhile, the Sites fire in Colusa County and the Post fire in Los Angeles and Ventura counties continued to burn but were close to full containment. The Aero Fire in Calaveras County was 95% contained as of 5:39 a.m. Tuesday morning and had burned 5,285 acres.
The Sites fire remains the largest fire burning in the state, having torched 19,195 acres as of 12:10 p.m. Tuesday.
Sanchez emphasized that California residents need to be prepared for wildfires and recommended visiting readyforwildfire.org.