Lightning fires near Lake Thomas A. Edison stay limited in Sierra National Forest

Air Attack 15 was coordinating multiple lightning-ignited fires near Lake Thomas A. Edison in Sierra National Forest, and the spread stayed limited, with one tree smoldering and the fire contained. The fire starts were in Fresno County’s high-elevation backcountry, where the forest around the lake can be hard to reach fast and small ignitions can turn into larger problems before ground crews get in.

Lake Thomas A. Edison sits inside Sierra National Forest, a U.S. Forest Service-managed recreation area above the Central Valley that draws hikers, campers and anglers heading into the mountains from Fresno County. Even a few lightning strikes can create separate starts that have to be watched at once, especially when thunderstorms arrive with little rain and dry fuels are already primed to burn.

That risk has already played out in the Fresno County mountains. CAL FIRE’s 2025 incident archive lists the Garnet Fire as a Fresno County wildfire, and officials determined on Aug. 29, 2025 that the fire was caused by lightning and had charred more than 16,000 acres. The incident command post was set up at Avocado Lake, and the Fresno County Board of Supervisors approved an emergency declaration.

The Sierra has also seen smaller lightning fires grow quickly before crews could fully pin them down. In 2024, the Basin Fire in Sierra National Forest near Balch Camp burned more than 1,000 acres.

Dry thunderstorms can drop strikes into remote timber where smoke may not be visible right away, and the first signs may be nothing more than a smoldering tree or a thin column in the trees. Air Attack 15 was already over the Lake Thomas A. Edison fires, and crews were trying to catch the ignition stage before warm, dry conditions let the fire spread beyond a single tree or cluster of trees.