Lightning sparks brief fire on hill bordering Joshua Tree National Park

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday (10/22) a brief but intense series of lightning strikes descended onto Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley, igniting at least one fire on the border of Joshua Tree National Park. The fire appeared halfway up one of the hills that forms the northern boundary of Joshua Tree National Park, right after the skies in Joshua Tree lit up with lightning and rolling thunder coming in from the south. The fire was visible to the naked eye from the Friendly Hills neighborhood and appeared to be located toward the Black Rock Campground area of the national park. A resident I spoke to in the Friendly Hills neighborhood of Joshua Tree called 911 to report the fire and they say they were transferred to San Bernardino County fire for the report. First appearing as a small orange light on the hill - the fire seemed to be growing quickly and by 12:15 a.m. the flames had visibly grown on the mountain but still appeared contained to a small area. Sirens could be heard responding from the Yucca Valley area and emergency lights were also seen driving toward the park. Winds at the time were calm, but the thunder and lightning continued over the park and headed north / northeast toward Yucca Valley and the mesa. Other emergency lights and sirens could be seen on Highway 62 traveling toward areas where heavy lightning had just passed over. It was a moonless night making the fire easy to spot in the total darkness surrounding it. There was no measurable rain in Joshua Tree, however the unmistakable smell of creosote came in from a north moving wind, possibly indicating that the area around the fire was receiving some precipitation. By 12:45 a.m. the light from the fire appeared to have diminished and the sky began to clear as the storm steadily moved north toward the mesa and Landers. An hour later around 1:45 a.m. the orange glow from the fire appeared to have almost completely dimmed, reduced to a small point of orange light still visible once your eyes adjusted. A manmade light source could be seen making its way toward the fire on the hill. The fire was difficult to photograph but easy to spot in almost complete darkness on Wednesday morning By 3:00 a.m. both the orange glow and the manmade lights could no longer be seen from Joshua Tree. Just ten days ago on Sunday, October 12th, a fire also lit off in the trails south of Black Rock Campground. That fire is 100% contained at 72 acres. The fire was handled by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, both of which have had staffing levels affected by the month-long federal government shutdown. Emails to the NPS and BLM inquiring about the cause of the fire were either not returned, or auto-responded with a notice that no one was available to read the email. We’ve reached out to the San Bernardino County Fire Department for more information on Wednesday morning’s fire inside Joshua Tree National Park, and Z107.7 will update this story as more details become available. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Robert Haydon (@joshuatreenews)