Smoke rises from a lightning sparked fire on Brown Mountain atop the Southern Oregon Cascades near Lake of the Woods and the Jackson/Klamath county line. July 15, 2018 (Brian Gailey)

LAKEVIEW, Ore. – South central Oregon wildland firefighters responded to numerous lightning caused fires over the weekend. As of 5 p.m. today, wildland firefighters have responded to over 20 confirmed fires caused by lighting.

Smoke rises from the south side of Pelican Butte following an abundance of lightning strikes. July 15, 2018 (Brian Gailey)

The six acre Randy fire is located approximately eight miles east of Bonanza and the largest incident from the weekend. Lakeview District Bureau of Land Management is the lead agency responding to the Randy fire and has initiated a full suppression response with assistance from Fremont-Winema National Forest and Oregon Department of Forestry.

Firefighters from all partner agencies assisted with the weekend response to the numerous lightning strikes. Crater Lake National Park was especially hit hard with eight of the lighting starts.

Firefighting efforts were bolstered by advanced planning performed by fire managers in prepositioning additional resources that were requested in preparation for the forecasted lightning strikes.

Current forecasts indicate a reduced probability of lighting over the next few days with additional strikes possible in the middle or latter part of the week.

Community safety and that of our firefighters is the number one priority for all SCOFMP employees.

Smoke Jumpers rappel from a helicopter to gain access to the fire start on top of Brown Mountain in far western Klamath County. July 15, 2018 (Brian Gailey)

The South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership provides comprehensive fire services to more than eight million acres of land administered by Lakeview District Bureau of Land Management; Fremont-Winema National Forest; Oregon Department of Forestry Klamath-Lake District; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge; and National Park Service Crater Lake National Park. The area encompasses federal, state and private lands within south central Oregon and northwest Nevada.

Information provided by South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership

Map of lightning strikes in the Southern Oregon, Northern California area for July 15, 2018.

Lighting strike count so far today (7/15/18 as of 3:00pm)
-Klamath County, 171
-Lake County, 217
-Siskiyou County, 403
-Modoc County, 427

According to the US National Weather Service Medford Oregon
"...the amount of cloud to ground lightning for our 9-county forecast area (~1900 strikes since this morning) is in the top 10 percent for daily lightning events for mid July (since 1988)."

Klamath Falls News coverage of the 2018 Wildfire Season is brought to you by Excel Auto Body.

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