Klamath Falls, Ore. – Several powerful storm cells passed over the Klamath Basin Thursday night, pounding the area with lightning.
The Clovis Fire burned five acres in the Pine Grove area around 7:30 that evening.
Roger Vercruysse lives near the burned area. He said, “Just after lightning struck, we went out and looked, and immediately smelled smoke.”
“Started down here at the other end behind me,” said Incident Commander Matt Flock of the Oregon Department of Forestry. “And within a few minutes, we could see it from our office that is on the other side of the lake.”
Flock added that heavy winds were blowing the fire toward homes. “It was actually going right towards another house that was probably another 1000 feet.”
“We could actually see some of the red flames,” recalled Vercruysse. “Pretty heavy duty smoke coming our way.”
While it was too windy to call out helicopters, the rain helped to put out the fires.
Flock was on hand Friday morning as crews worked to make sure the fire doesn’t rekindle. “I think we found 10 smokes already just today.”
Crews will be watching for other lighting sparked fires throughout the area.
“These next few days are going to be the lightning holdover days,” said Flock.
Thursday night’s storm also caused some minor flooding in downtown Klamath Falls, though there have been no reports of any serious damage.
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