Update: Over 600 Firefighters Helping Fight TCU September Lightning Complex Fire

TCU September Lightning Complex Fire near Don Pedro Reservoir—CAL Fire map

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Update at 6:40 p.m.: CAL Fire updated tonight that the TCU September Lightning Complex Fire is holding at 13,371 acres, and there remains zero containment. The updated acreages for the blazes can be found below. All the evacuation orders and advisories remain in place, as well as the shelters. Highways 108 and 4 remain open. To get to Yosemite National Park from Jamestown via Highway 120, motorists must use Jacksonville Road. 

Update at 2 p.m.: CAL Fire has updated the total acreage for the TCU September Lightning Complex Fire to 13,371, a growth of 1,394 acres. Multiple communities continue to be at risk, including ancestral tribal lands, and evacuation orders and warnings remain in place. Highways 108 and 4 remain open. To get to Yosemite National Park from Jamestown via Highway 120, motorists must use Jacksonville Road. CAL Fire has provided this list of the acreage per incident:

• 1-2 Fire: 20 acres (New Hogan Lake)
• 2-2 Fire: 3,462 acres (Copperopolis, West of Dutton)
• 2-3 Fire: 294 acres (Copper Cove Ct at Obyrnes Ferry Rd, Copperopolis)
• 2-5 Fire: 5 acres
• 2-6 Fire: 5 acres
• 2-7 Fire: 591 acres (Vallecito)
• 2-8 Fire: 1,326 acres/up by 827 (Copperopolis, Little John Rd.)
• 4-5 Fire: 3.25 acres/McCormick Meadows, South of Arnold
• 5-2 Fire: 15 acres/Lyons Bald Mountain Rd, Sonora
• 6-2 Fire: 951 acres (Don Pedro)
• 6-3 Fire: 5 acres (Groveland)
• 6-5 Fire: 6,838 acres/up by 365 (Don Pedro)

Deputies remained on the scene, and extra patrols in the affected areas are still ongoing. Please use caution when traveling through the area and stay alert for emergency vehicles, heavy equipment, and personnel.

Below, written by BJ Hansen, Update at 11:55 am: Heading into the noon hour, there are still no changes in relation to evacuation warnings and orders since Tuesday evening.

With better mapping, CAL Fire has reduced the size estimate of the overall TCU September Lightning Complex Fire, to 11,977 acres.

A total of 22 fires were located after a lightning storm passed through the region Tuesday morning. CAL Fire reports that multiple ground and air resources have arrived, totaling 634 personnel. Additional ground and air resources are on order and will be engaged on the fire lines as soon as they arrive.

The fires have exhibited active runs in critically dry tall grass, brush, and timber fuels. The terrain is challenging to access, in many areas, requiring fire crews to hike in by foot to many remote locations. A number of structures have been damaged or destroyed, and a Damage Inspection Team is on order. Weather conditions continue to be a challenge to crews as gusty winds remain in the area from nearby thunderstorm cells.

A larger Type 1 CAL Fire Incident Management Team has been ordered.

Update at 7:48 am: For the latest information about school impacts due to the TCU September Lightning Complex Fire, click here. 

Original story posted at 6:21 am: Don Pedro, CA — What is being referred to as the TCU (Tuolumne Calaveras Unit) September Lightning Complex Fire is now estimated to be a combined 12,473 acres spread across Tuolumne and Calaveras Counties.

A series of lightning strikes starting during the five o’clock hour on Tuesday morning ignited at least around 20 fire starts, and many were located during the afternoon when temperatures increased.

Updated size estimates for the individual fires could be released later this morning, but the largest and most concerning ones are in the Don Pedro, Copperopolis, and Vallecito areas.

Find the latest evacuation maps here for the largest incident, the 6-5 Fire at Don Pedro, which is 6,473 acres, here.

Information on the 2-7 Fire, near Vallecito, which is 584 acres, with evacuations, can be found here.

Details on the 2-2 Fire, which is 3,462 acres, west of Copperopolis, can be found here.

Of note, nothing has changed when it comes to evacuations since Tuesday evening, according to CAL Fire. Per the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office, all of Chinese Camp is under an evacuation order, along with Red Hill Road, Six Bit Ranch Road, Don Pedro Dam Road, Mekee Hess Road, all roads east of Highway 108 from J-59 to the Highway 49 Montezuma Junction, Shawmut Road, and both sides of Highway 120 from Chinese Camp to the Highway 120 Bridge.

CAL Fire Spokesperson Emily Kilgore comments, “There is still the potential for additional fires that haven’t been identified yet to be discovered, so monitor the evacuations and emergency alert information that comes out. Also, note that you don’t have to wait to be told to evacuate. If at any time you feel unsafe in the area you are in, feel free to leave at that time.”

There are also evacuation advisories for all areas from Bell Mooney and Jacksonville Road, and west to Highway 49 and Highway 108 south to Old Jacksonville Road. Evacuation shelters are open at the Bret Harte High School in Altaville and at the Sonora Senior Center on Greenley Road. Animal evacuation shelters are open for livestock only at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds and for small pets at Bret Harte and the Sonora Senior Center. The Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office reports that 40 members are out supporting operations, working around the clock with fire officials. Calaveras Sheriff’s Officials are also actively involved in all operations.

No information has been released yet about potential damage to homes and other structures in the Chinese camp areas.

We will provide more updates as information becomes available.