NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – State fire officials said Monday that dozens of fires around northeastern California were ignited over the weekend by thousands of lightning strikes.

Since Saturday, more than 4,000 lightning strikes across several counties northeast California sparked 33 fires in Cal Fire's jurisdiction, with more than 250 acres burned, the agency said Monday afternoon.

The US Forest Service reported another 78 lightning-sparked fires have burned 115 acres in its jurisdiction.

In Bureau of Land Management jurisdiction, there was the Constantia Fire, located in Lassen County under BLM's Carson City District, which had burned 1,700 acres and was 10 percent contained Monday, with one home and several outbuildings destroyed, the agency's Susanville Interagency Fire Center reported.

The Potato Fire in Mono County, also under BLM jurisdiction, had burned 610 acres and was 60-percent contained, with full containment expected Tuesday, the BLM said.

Most of the fire activity was taking place in Lassen, Shasta and Siskiyou counties, Cal fire reported. Lassen had 27 fires and 250 acres burned, Shasta had two fires totaling less than an acre of burned land and four fires had burned an additional two acres in Siskiyou.

 

The largest blaze, the Russell Fire, is located in Lassen County, east of Straylor Lake in the Bieber area, where 14 other lightning-caused fires were reported, according to Cal Fire. It was burning in timber, juniper and brush.

By Monday evening the Russell Fire had burned 250 acres with 30-percent containment. Cal Fire was leading the effort along with the US Forest Service, BLM and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Nearly 200 firefighters were on scene, along with 13 engines, eight hand crews, one helicopter, six bulldozers and seven water tenders.

Lakeport Fire Protection Chief Ken Wells, the county's operations area coordinator on fire incidents, said Monday afternoon that local jurisdictions like Lake County's fire districts haven't yet received a call to send resources.

Cal Fire urged residents around the state to be particularly cautious now as crews are busy working on the lightning fires.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf .