As I may have mentioned before, I am/was the camp host at Lava Beds National Monument this summer. I was asked to come to the park in mid May because they figured a couple of weeks of self-quarantine would be a good idea. I had six weeks of self-quarantine. The park didn’t open the campground until June 29.
Things were going well until we got a thunderstorm on Tuesday this last week. Lots of rumbling and grumbling with not much lightning showing until after a couple of hours after the start. That is when all heck, literally, broke out.
There are a bunch of fires burning in the Modoc National Forest, which surrounds the park. In the southern part of the park, 5 miles or so from the visitor center, at Caldwell Butte, a fire broke out Wednesday morning.
The URL for details of the fire is
TULELAKE, Calif. — A lightning-sparked wildfire at the eastern edge of Siskiyou County has grown rapidly over the past two days, burning across the Lava Beds National Monument.
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There are 15 active fires within the Modoc National Forest, according to fire officials, and most have been kept to a small and manageable size. Several of those fires have grown beyond initial containment efforts, however.
The Caldwell Fire — now the largest wildfire in the area — is located near Caldwell Butte, roughly in the southeastern area of the Lave Beds. It grew quickly over Wednesday and Thursday to cover more than 7,900 acres. USFS said that it was nearing the community of Tionesta, just over the Modoc County line.
While no evacuations have yet been ordered for homes, both the Lava Beds park and the Medicine Lake Recreation Area are under mandatory evacuations due to the fire's spread. The 10 Road, or Lava Beds Road, has been closed since Thursday.
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The National Weather Service tweeted on Thursday afternoon, saying that it was monitoring a "scary situation" over the Caldwell Fire.
"The smoke has developed into a 'pyrocumulus' and has been generating lightning strikes for the last couple of hours. It will likely continue to do so until sunset," NWS said.
The formation of a pyrocumulus cloud could cause dry lightning strikes — potentially sparking even more fires — and high, erratic winds that cause the wildfire to move and grow in unexpected directions, NWS said.
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A smoke plume from the Caldwell Fire is visible even from long distances.
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I have never had to evacuate anywhere before and this is really distressing. I’m staying in a motel in Klamath Falls and my kitties are in my trailer parked across the street.
We were originally told we would be in the hotel until Monday morning. It has been moved to another week until we MIGHT go back. There are several (!) bigger and smaller fires in Northern California. Guess we didn’t do enough raking of our sage brush and juniper tree stuff.
Guess this camp hosting gig didn’t go the way it should have.