CAL FIRE staying ahead of wildfires in latest string of lightning fire events

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) - Thunderstorms swept through the Bay Area and the Central Valley overnight Tuesday, lighting up the sky and sparking wildfire concerns.

CAL FIRE is saying that several fires have already broken out across the region, with lightning suspected to have started many of those.

Firefighters are now moving fast to get containment before today’s heat and wind….

We’re talking nearly 3,000 lightning strikes overnight, most of them cloud-to-ground. 

And CAL FIRE BEU confirms,  a number of those strikes did spark fires, including here in Monterey County.

"We did have two lightning strikes, cloud-to-ground strikes. The first one was the Mustang Fire, and we were able to get that under control at about three quarters of an acre. The most current one is the Park Fire," says CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Josh Silvera

The good news? Crews are spotting these fires faster than ever, thanks to new technology…

"With the use of, emerging technology, we're able to do a much better scan of areas and, where we used to see fires that could sit and smolder for weeks. Using our alert wildfire cameras, using our intel aircraft out of Sacramento," says Chief Silvera.

Many of these lightning events that sparked fires flare up in hard-to-reach areas, making response times a challenge.

"Most of these current fires have started in areas that are pretty remote. And it's just taking us a little bit longer to react to them. But with modern technology, we're getting alerted much sooner than we have been in years past," says Chief Silvera.

One big concern? Fires that don’t start right away. Fire officials say lightning can hit a tree and smolder sometimes for days or even weeks.

"Lightning is always looking for that path of least resistance. So it's going to look for a tall object. A dead tree, a live tree, and just something that's tall, that's going to be that first bit of continuity to the ground," says Chief Silvera. "It could smolder for weeks. But with the use of, emerging technology, we're able to do a much better scan of areas."

Crews are now shifting resources to areas hit by the recent lightning storms.

"We're reallocating resources. So, as engines or other resources become available from our larger incidents in northern california. We're starting to pre-position them in areas that were affected by this lightning storm," says Chief Silvera.