Fires

A predawn thunderstorm lit up Sacramento skies Sunday night and Monday, while in the Sierra, lightning strikes sparked a number of small fires.

Firefighters were mopping up a fire outside of the Yolo County community of Guinda today.

A fire north of Cache Creek Casino Resort in Yolo County has burned 550 acres and is threatening several homes in the community of Guinda, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reports.

Information provided by the public shortly after the Robbers fire started last week led to Friday's arrest of a 28-year-old Sacramento man, according to fire officials.

A week after it began in rugged terrain northwest of Foresthill, the Robbers fire was reported 75 percent contained Wednesday evening, and full containment is expected Saturday.

Cooler weather allowed firefighters to make progress in corralling a stubborn Placer County wildland blaze that has raged for nearly a week.

Predictably, the clash of the titans ended loudly Tuesday.

Fire crews took advantage of a dip in area temperatures to get a handle on the Robbers fire, officials said Monday.

The Robbers fire, which consumed one home and four outbuildings in Placer County, grew to 2,400 acres Sunday and is now 30 percent contained, the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported.

The Robbers fire in Placer County continued to grow Saturday and was blamed for destroying its first structures – one home and three outbuildings – but firefighters were making progress at getting a handle on it.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday assigned five specially equipped National Guard helicopters to join the fight against the Robbers fire, which continues to pose a threat in remote Placer County.

High temperatures, low humidity and wind thwarted efforts to contain a fire near Foresthill, which grew to at least 800 acres Thursday, one of the largest wildfires in the Sacramento region this season.

Residents of homes scattered throughout a rugged area of Placer County northwest of Foresthill were evacuated Wednesday afternoon as a fire that started near the north fork of the American River burned up the side of the canyon.

Firefighters were busy Sunday with frequent grass fires, including calls in Orangevale, Wilton and Sacramento.

Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District firefighters were kept busy Sunday – a day when the mercury hit 100 degrees.

A rapidly moving grass fire burned 10 acres and threatened homes Saturday afternoon in El Dorado County.

More than 300 firefighters, law enforcement officers, Red Cross volunteers and others participated Saturday in a huge disaster drill covering a 237-home neighborhood in El Dorado Hills.

Fire officials were searching Sunday for the cause of a blaze that displaced eight families Saturday in a Citrus Heights apartment complex.

Fire officials today are continuing to investigate the cause of a fire that displaced 10 families in a Citrus Heights apartment complex on Saturday evening.

Several homes were threatened by a grass fire that burned into a eucalyptus grove in an area south of Wilton, off Clay Station Road, late Friday afternoon.

Traditionally, there has been a friendly rivalry between different branches of the military.

During this Wildfire Awareness Week, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection urges homeowners to prepare their families and homes for the threat of wildfire as we move into a particularly dry summer season.

Sacramento city firefighter Jeffrey Coats pulled the kinks out of the hose to make sure it was ready in case the situation blew. He smelled natural gas. Everybody smelled fumes the second they drove up to the house on 25th Avenue. They could smell them from the street.

One person was reported dead after Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District crews extinguished a fire Saturday morning in a North Highlands mobile home park.