Burning in the Golden Trout Wilderness and the Sequoia National Forest, the Lion Fire reached 17,436 acres on July 29, 2011. Lightning ignited the fire on July 8. As the fire grew, it forced parts of Golden Trout Wilderness and Sequoia National Park to close. As of July 29, the fire is 15 percent contained and continues to grow.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite took this image on July 28. The actively burning area is outlined in red. The Lion Fire is burning in the southern Sierra Nevada Range, which is still capped with snow in this image. Smoke from the fire has affected air quality in parts of California’s Central Valley, visible to the west of the fire in this image.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
