Lightning Sets Raging Fires; Crews Battle to Gain Control

Lightning that hammered the earth as often as 10 times a minute touched off more than 1,000 fires throughout California on Tuesday, blackening 35,000 acres of timber and brushland, forcing evacuation of homes and campgrounds in danger areas and claiming the life of one firefighter.

A total of 9,200 firefighters were on the line, assisted by 57 air tankers, 545 fire engines, 44 helicopters, 37 aerial tankers and scores of bulldozers. Maryn Pitt, assistant director of of the state Department of Forestry, said more manpower has been summoned from as far away as Virginia and Alaska.

“We’re really tapped,” Pitt said. “We just don’t have any more resources to commit at this time.”

The hottest spot in the state was in the southern part of Stanislaus National Forest, where residents of the Miramonte subdivision of Tuolumne City were told to be ready to evacuate as a lightning-spawned fire moved swiftly through 12,000 acres of timber.

Warning: Stand By

“We’ve issued a pre-warning for people to stand by in case we need to ask them to evacuate,” said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Mary Hale. “The fire could cross the north fork of the Tuolumne River. There’s no immediate danger at this time, but there is a forecast of evening lightning with erratic winds.”

Two other uncontrolled fires near the Gold Rush town of Groveland have forced closure of California 120, the northern access to Yosemite National Park, along a 30-mile stretch from Big Oak Flat to Groveland, Hale said, adding that the southern half of the forest, from California 120 to California 140, has been closed to the public.

One of these fires, a 4,000-acre blaze about 10 miles east of Groveland, forced evacuation of about 10 homes in Harden Flats and burned a lookout station, she said, and a 4,000-acre blaze, eight miles south of Groveland, burned a mobile home and a second lookout station and forced the evacuation of about 100 people in the community of Smith Station.

Seven fires were reported actively burning in Klamath National Forest, 300 miles northeast of San Francisco, and one of them--an uncontrolled 3,000-acre blaze near Happy Camp, 50 miles west of Yreka--was blamed for the death of U.S. Forest Service firefighter Bruce F. Visser, 34, of Mountain Center in San Bernardino County.

Struck by Motorcycle

A forest service spokesman said Visser, who had been airlifted north to fight the Klamath fires, was standing on a national forest road when he was struck by a motorcycle. He died at a hospital in the area and the motorcyclist was held on suspicion of felony hit and run.

A second large fire in the Klamath forest, where 157 blazes have burned about 7,000 acres since Saturday, scorched about 2,000 acres and damaged a ranch home near the community of Forks of the Salmon, 40 to 50 miles south of Happy Camp.

In the Shasta-Trinity National Forest, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Dave Bosch said an uncontrolled 4,000-acre fire burned a vacant home and is threatening the small mountain community of Hyampom, about 25 miles west of Weaverville, the Trinity County seat. He said two evacuation centers have been set up, although no evacuations have yet been ordered.

About 20 miles south of Weaverville, a second uncontrolled fire of 650 acres is threatening Peanut, another small mountain community.

In Tahoe National Forest, an uncontrolled 1,000-acre fire burned to the outskirts of the community of Graniteville, and Forest Service spokesman Ted Gregg said a second uncontrolled fire of 1,500 acres, north of California 49 and about 10 miles west of Downieville, had forced the evacuation of three families as a precautionary measure. Other evacuations in the area might become necessary, he added.

Farther south, a 9,000-acre brush and timber fire continued to burn out of control after injuring 14 firefighters in Sequoia National Forest, and Kern County Fire Capt. Ray Stark said he could see “no possibility of containing this fire in the immediate future.”

Other fires continued to burn from one end of the state to the other, and fire officials said it could be the worst onslaught of its kind in California since the drought year of 1977, when the Marble-Cone fire in Los Padres National Forest blackened nearly 200,000 acres.

“It’s still not as dry as all that,” said fire information officer Jim Geiger. “Most of the fires started carry their own death warrant: They are put out by the rainfall associated with the storm that started them.”

Nonetheless, he said, sensors scattered throughout the mountains recorded lighting strikes at a rate of slightly more than 10 per minute several times during the day, and the weather forecast offered no immediate prospect of relief.

A high-pressure weather cell over Nevada combined with low pressure off the Southern California coast to keep temperatures high, and National Weather Service forecaster Laura Moffitt said moisture from Mexico was being forced into California. Combined with the heat, she said, this has created an unstable situation resulting in the intense thunderstorm and lightning activity.

What’s more, she said, no major changes in the weather picture are expected for at least a day or two.

In Southern California, meanwhile, one of several fires originally said to have been started by lightning is now being handled as arson.

Deputy Van Mosley of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Information Bureau said the arson squad was sent to Agoura Road and Reyes Canyon at 12:38 p.m. Tuesday, while the fire was being controlled after burning 125 acres of brushland.

Small fires were also reported in the Agua Dulce Canyon area and in Canyon Country, near the Pine Tree Tract, and one firefighter working on the latter blaze was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia for treatment of heat exhaustion. He was reported in good condition.