Wildfire — Northern San Joaquin Valley, California

2025-09-02 to 2025-09-13 · Northern San Joaquin Valley, California

Event narrative

The TCU September Lightning Complex began as a series of lightning fire starts on the morning of September 2nd across 4 counties, Calaveras, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne. The largest fires are the 6-5 fire and the 2-7 fire, with total acreage burned at 13,966 Acres. There has been 1 firefighter injury reported, with 85 structures destroyed and 6 damaged, including structures in the historic Gold Rush town of China Camp. Numerous roads were closed including both sides of Highway 120 from Chinese Camp to Highway 120 Bridge, all Roads east of Highway 108 from J-59 to Highway 120, as well as portions of Highway 49 and Highway 108 in the area. The fire was declared 100 percent contained on September 13.

Wider weather episode

The TCU September Lightning Complex began as a series of lightning fire starts on the morning of September 2nd across 4 counties, Calaveras, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne. The largest fires are the 6-5 fire and the 2-7 fire, with total acreage burned at 13,966 Acres. There has been 1 firefighter injury reported, with 85 structures destroyed and 6 damaged, including structures in the historic Gold Rush town of China Camp. Numerous roads were closed including both sides of Highway 120 from Chinese Camp to Highway 120 Bridge, all Roads east of Highway 108 from J-59 to Highway 120, as well as portions of Highway 49 and Highway 108 in the area. The fire was declared 100 percent contained on September 13th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1282610. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.