Rain does little to halt Northern California wildfires – and lightning started new ones
Northern California got a welcome spell of rainfall late Thursday and early Friday, but it wasn’t nearly enough to snuff out the Caldor, Dixie and other major wildfires that bedevil the state.
In fact, the lightning strikes started a handful of new fires, one of which — the Kanaka in western El Dorado County — prompted Cal Fire to redeploy firefighters and equipment from the Caldor Fire. Cal Fire also reported a cluster of lightning strikes fell on the west shore of Lake Tahoe.
“Anytime we have thunderstorms in summertime, it’s a mixed bag,” said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director at Cal Fire.
However, all of the new fires were still small — less than 10 acres each — as of Friday morning. The Kanaka was among the largest of the new fires, in the Rescue area north of Shingle Springs in El Dorado County, and was reported at 6 acres, Berlant said. The fire was burning about 20 miles west of the western edge of the Caldor Fire burn zone.
Most regions of Northern California received a fraction of an inch of rain — well short of what’s needed to put a true damper on wildfires.
“We need at least three inches in a short period of time to make a dent,” Berlant said.
With California in its second year of drought, vegetation has dried to the point that active fire weather was expected to resume Friday. A red flag warning was in effect for much of the northern Sierra Nevada until 11 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service said.
“All it takes is a little bit of sun and a little bit of wind and we’re right back to where we were,” said Issac Sanchez, battalion chief of communications at Cal Fire. He said some personnel and equipment were diverted to the Kanaka Fire from the Caldor, but he had no details.
Berlant said Northern California recorded 385 lightning strikes in a 24-hour period, sparking 17 new fires.
At a morning briefing at a base camp in Placerville, Cal Fire officials urged crews working the Caldor Fire to stay vigilant despite the overnight rains. The fire, which posed a grave threat a week ago in the Lake Tahoe basin, was at 218,459 acres Friday and 53% contained.
“I’m very pleased to be standing in a very wet base camp with you this morning,” said Anale Burlew, an incident commander. But she added: “These raindrops will have little to no effect on our critically dry fuels. It’s very important that we’re not complacent.”
Dixie Fire rain: ‘Like it wasn’t even there’
Further north, officials said the rains fell on the Dixie Fire — the largest in the state this year, and the second-largest in California history — but had minimal effect.
The rainfall, measured at about a half-inch, “doesn’t put this fire out,” said Tony Brownell, a Cal Fire operations section chief, said Friday morning. “It will slow the fire down for a couple of days. ... Once the sun gets on it and the wind gets on it, it’s going to want to get up and move again.”
Even on a rainy day, he said the fire flared up Thursday in parts of Lassen National Park and skipped across Highway 44 “like it wasn’t even there,” he said.
Jeff Surber, a USDA Forest Service operations section chief, said the rains forced some redeployment of equipment to make sure vehicles didn’t get stuck in the mud.
“They were getting quite a bit of rain,” he said. “They kind of pulled folks out of the mud and got them back on hard-surfaced roads.”
The fire was at 950,591 acres, and 59% contained.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Rain does little to halt Northern California wildfires – and lightning started new ones."