It took a day longer than expected, but smoke from the Lick Fire finally filled the sky yesterday. The sun was a beautiful shade of red-orange (not to be mistaken with orange-red) and the grayish haze gave the south valley an eerie look.

Thankfully, the smell of smoke was faint, unlike the heavily scented haze of the Angora Fire I hiked through in Tahoe not so long ago.

This morning, the sun was a fiery shade of red. Unfortunately, I didn't have my trusty camera with me to photograph it.

According to the news, the nearby fire wasn't the only reason for the pretty color show poor air quality. An 18,500-acre blaze burning in Plumas National Forest, known as the Moonlight Fire, was also a contributor.

The local newspaper reported that the fire in and around Henry Coe grew to nearly 19,000 acres overnight. Authorities claim the blaze is still 25 percent contained, the same percentage as last night, when the fire was "only" 14,000 acres.

The claim doesn't make sense to me. It would seem logical that the percentage would drop if the fire grew rapidly or jumped firelines (as it did last night). Note to self: research the method used to measure fire containment.

The article also said investigators determined the cause of the fire...

"Authorities said Wednesday that the Lick Fire was started by careless behavior at a private hunting camp near a spot called Booze Lake, just outside the state park boundary. They said someone was burning something in a barrel and the flames got out of control."

Cal-Fire's site simply states the cause as "Human", which is the polite way of saying "Idiot".

Update: For people wanting more in-depth and current information on the Moonlight Fire, check out InciWeb, a neat "interagency wildland fire incident information management system". They provide announcements, news, photographs, and maps of fires across the country, including this large one showing Moonlight's boundaries.