The State - News from Sept. 2, 1988

Firefighters were struggling to contain five major fires in the mountain ranges of Northern California, hoping that the potential for thousands of lightning strikes would not materialize. Two homes were destroyed by a blaze near Mariposa that consumed nearly 560 acres, officials said. More than 1,000 firefighters were trying to contain a 3,000-acre fire in Sierra Nevada timber country near Burney, 220 miles northeast of San Francisco. A thunderstorm that dumped between a half-inch and an inch of rain helped slow a 2,000-acre brush and grass fire in the Kings River canyon, about 35 miles east of Fresno. Two separate fires, each of about 600 acres, burned quickly out of control in Lassen and Trinity counties.