Northern California fires? I live in Newcastle, about 3 miles from Auburn and about 25 miles from Sacramento. I%26#039;m in the valley where all the smoke from these fires is. I saw a sattellite picture of this part of Cali on the news last night and you couldn%26#039;t even see the ground for miles around cause it was covered with a blanket of smoke. What on earth is causing these hundreds of fires? It can%26#039;t be from heat cause I%26#039;ve experienced much hotter summers here than this and this never happened.

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

The majority of these fires were caused by dry lightning (little or no rain). A few were man made - lit cigarette out the window, overheated car/accident near dry grass, arson... Unfortunately, a lot of the fires here in Northern California are in very steep, rugged, mountainous regions and it%26#039;s very difficult for the firefighters to get to them. Even air drops are hampered by the smoke - it%26#039;s too thick in some areas to fly in and drop water or fire retardant. The fires that are threatening homes are being dealt with first and fires that don%26#039;t pose imminent danger to people and their homes will be taken care of asap. So... we%26#039;re gonna have to deal with the smoke for a while longer. I live in Shasta County - over 150 fires burning. 50% 2 Votes

Other Answers (3)

• Lightening Storms, I am from Redding and the smoke is bad here too! We were right in the center of the storm, little rain and lots of thunder and lightening, I actual saw a bolt of lightening hit the ground 20 ft away from me or so, at Ace Hardware and the thunder almost gave me a heart attack, it looks like we are going to get more dry lightening this week sometime, which means more fires........which means more smoke.... 25% 1 Vote
• You should have heard by now, most of these fires were caused by lightening. We have them here too. They finally put one of them completely out, but it`s still very Smokey here in Fairfield CA, where Travis AFB is. 25% 1 Vote
• real simple, nature ! fires,mud slides and eartquakes are part of the Ca. life. 0% 0 Votes