Looks like lighting strikes started many fires in the Sierra this last weekend. Here is an article fro the Reno Gazette Journal.

Fire crews contained a lightning-sparked wildfire north of Fernley at 6 p.m. on Sunday while other crews continued to fight dozens of lightning fires burning in the Sierra.

 

The Little Valley Fire, midway between Fernley and Nixon, was contained after burning about 680 acres of grass and sagebrush, said Helen Frazier, information officer at the Sierra Front Interagency Dispatch Center in Minden.

The fire was started by a lightning strike about 5:20 p.m. Saturday. Fire activity died down overnight and there was “very little activity” on Sunday, Frazier said. About 100 firefighters battled the blaze at its peak, but only two engine crews remained at the scene overnight Sunday.

Saturday’s lightning started about 40 fires in Plumas National Forest and another 25 in Tahoe National Forest, said officials with the U.S Forest Service.

The largest of those, the Fall Fire, had burned about 450 acres in Nevada County near California 20, said Gina Torvinen, a Forest Service spokeswoman in Nevada City. Some evacuations of cabins and campgrounds in the area were ordered Sunday, she said. Most of the Tahoe National Forest fires were contained by Sunday night, but five were still “burning strong,” Torvinen said.

The Cold Fire was burning between 150 and 300 acres in Plumas National Forest with no containment estimated Sunday.

Firefighters were also battling two suspected lightning fires in Eldorado National Forest west of Lake Tahoe that had burned about 50 acres combined.

Smoke from the Sierra fires was drifting toward Pyramid Lake but stayed mostly out of the Truckee Meadows Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.

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