Around midnight Monday, an explosive storm cloud rose roughly 40,000 feet above the eastern portion of the blaze. Thompson estimates that it soared 300 to 400 feet above an area west of Antelope Lake, where evacuations were ordered this week. Dixie is one of 96 blazes raging across the West, said Rocky Opliger, an incident commander for California Interagency Incident Team 4. More than 25,000 firefighters are deployed to fight the fires, with nearly 6,000 assigned to Dixie alone, he said. To the west of the Dixie fire, the lightning-sparked Monument fire continues to spread, with little containment, in Trinity County.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 10, 2021 23:33 UTC