VIDEO: Evacuations remain in effect after a series of fires sparked by lightning started in two Northern California counties. While Cal Fire, the state’s fire management agency, has not reported structure damage, KCRA 3 was able to visually confirm several structures either destroyed or damaged in the historic Tuolumne County gold mining community of Chinese Camp. The series of fires, grouped together by Cal Fire as the TCU September Lightning Complex, has collectively burned at least 11,977 acres as of 7:42 a.m., up from the 9,383 acres reported at 9:45 p.m. Tuesday. Earlier Wednesday morning, Cal Fire listed the acreage at 12,473, but numbers can change with better surveying and mapping of the burn area.
At least nine fires comprise this complex. Of the nine, the two largest ones are the so-called 6-5 Fire in Tuolumne County that sparked near the Don Pedro Reservoir and the 2-7 Fire that started along Six Mile Road near the Vallecito area in Calaveras County. Cal Fire listed the cause of both fires as lightning. Both of those fires are among many given similar names after thousands of lightning strikes hit parts of the Central Valley, Sacramento Valley, and the Foothills. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Tuesday afternoon said that in the first two days of September, California had recorded 9,619 lightning strikes.
