Lightning-sparked wildfire in Sequoia National Forest grows as thunderstorms loom
A wildfire burning east of Visalia in Sequoia National Forest continued to grow Monday.
Triggered by a lightning strike Wednesday, the Castle Fire rapidly advanced into the Golden Trout Wilderness area of the forest. Early Saturday, it had burned about 400 acres but by that night was up to 2,000 acres.
By Monday morning, it jumped over the Little Kern River and was pushing toward the Flatiron to the east and Trout Meadow toward the north. The fire had burned about 5,000 acres, with 0% containment, according to an update as of about 5 p.m.
The Tulare County Sheriff’s office issued a voluntary evacuation notice for the areas of Camp Nelson and Ponderosa on Sunday afternoon.
Six 20-person hand crews along with several aircraft have been working to fight the blaze, but the steep and rocky terrain, fire behavior and winds are making it difficult, said U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Alicia Embrey.
At one point the fire began racing up the top of a ridge just south of Castle Peak. An air tanker was called in to drop retardant and stop it from moving west.
Fire crews were evaluating their next moves as the forecast called for dry, hot temperatures with an increasing chance of thunderstorms in the area.
Emergency closures of Golden Trout Wilderness trails and trail heads are pending. Those with wilderness permits are asked to view closure information online. Forest personnel have been reaching out to known wilderness permit holders to warn them about the fires.
A second fire in the area, dubbed the Shotgun Fire, is also believed to have been started by lightning. The Shotgun Fire is burning where Pistol Creek and Shotgun Creek converge in the Golden Trout Wilderness.
The Shotgun Fire is located within the burn scar of the 2017 Lion Fire and has grown to about 200 acres. It will remain unstaffed until resources become available to put it out.
California’s firefighting resources are being spread thin as more than 500 wildfires are burning, including the LNU Lightning Complex fire north of Napa that has burned more than 341,000 acres and the SCU Lightning Complex fire east of San Jose that has destroyed nearly 340,000 acres.
This story was originally published August 23, 2020 at 12:17 PM.
