Another Lake County Wildfire, The Jerusalem Fire, Breaks Out Right Next To The Rocky Fire

To our north in Lake County, just to the south of the Rocky Fire — which has ultimately burned 70,000 acres over 12 days and is now 85 percent contained — there's now a new fire burning dubbed the Jerusalem Fire, which as of this morning had reached 5,000 acres. The fire broke out at 3:42 p.m. Sunday according to CalFire, and it has already forced the evacuation of the Jerusalem Valley area.

The new fire is so close to the Rocky Fire, in fact, that the southern tip of the Rocky Fire almost touches the Jerusalem fire, however they are unrelated.

The fire grew incredibly rapidly Sunday afternoon and evening, as ABC 7 reports, going from around 300 acres to 3,000 acres within five hours.

And as Twitter and CBS 5 show us, the pictures of the first night of the fire are pretty eery.

In related news, CalFire just made their fifth arson arrest in just two weeks, this time arresting 49-year-old Juan Ramos Silva of Lower Lake for trying to set his own backfire. Silva's arrest is not connected to either the start of the Rocky or Jerusalem Fires, and the causes of both remain under investigation.