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Multiple structures burned in a historic Gold Rush town in northern California on Tuesday night, after thousands of lightning strikes ignited a spate of fast-moving fires in the rural dry foothills of the eastern Sierra.
Chinese Camp, about 57 miles (92km) east of Stockton and named for the Chinese miners who settled there, is a registered California landmark filled with historic structures, and home to roughly 60 residents.
Officials have not yet released details on the scale of the damage, but footage from the fire line showed buildings leveled and engulfed in flames, as firefighters battled through the night.
By Wednesday morning, eight fire conflagrations collectively named the TCU September Lightning Complex spread across more than 12,400 acres (5,000 hectares), with 0% containment.
“You can see the scale of destruction from this fire,” local news KCRA reporter Peyton Headlee said in a social media video as she walked down the main road of Chinese Camp, now laden with smoldering rubble on all sides. The blaze had already jumped Highway 120 and Highway 49, she said.
“When a historic building burns, it’s a piece of history we lose,” Stephen Provost, who authored the book Chinese Camp: The Haunting History of California’s Forgotten Boomtown, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “When a whole town like that goes – I mean, wow … I just can’t. It’s just devastating.”
California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, secured a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) to support fire suppression efforts his office announced on Tuesday, and pre-deployed firefighting resources to five counties across the northern part of the state facing elevated risks.
“We are securing all available resources – including support from our federal partners – to fight this growing lightning complex fire in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties,” Newsom said in a statement.
Along with the eight blazes that are considered part of the TCU September Lightning Complex, dozens of other fires are burning in the state, with months left before the high-risk conditions begin to subside.
It’s already been a devastating year of fire in California, starting with the fire storm that swept into communities across Los Angeles in January, killing 31 people. Overall, there have been more than 6,500 wildfires in the state in 2025, collectively burning close to half a million acres.
Significant fire potential is forecast to be above normal in September across northern California, according to an analysis from the National Interagency Fire Center issued on Monday, and high risks are likely to linger into October.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
