Lightning sparks dozens of blazes

As firefighters battled a series of blazes across a hot and dry California Saturday, officials were watching a storm of dry lightning strikes that had the potential to make things worse.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the state’s firefighting agency, said more than 900 lightning strikes were reported early Saturday, with little to no rainfall, sparking dozens of fires. Officials said more lightning was forecast later in the day.

The hardest-hit area was Shasta County, where officials said lightning strikes around 4:30 a.m. set off at least a dozen fires on land under state jurisdiction, plus at least seven fires on federal land.

The biggest fire, east of Redding and near the town of Whitmore, had burned 250 acres of private land, said Dick Goings, a volunteer Cal Fire spokesman. No damage was reported and no evacuations were ordered as of Saturday afternoon.

“Things are looking pretty good,” Goings said. “They’re hitting it with everything they’ve got.”

As of Saturday morning, about a dozen significant fires were burning across California, though more than 7,000 local, state and federal firefighters had many of them well-contained.

Cal Fire suspended all burning permits last week on 31 million acres of state property and private land under state jurisdiction, citing dry conditions.