Map: 

Golden Trout Wilderness Pack Station is circled in yellow. 

Ponderosa is at the bottom middle of the map.

Other communities underlined in yellow. 

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The Lion Fire, ignited a week ago by lightning, has grown to 3500 acres. It is burning near Lion Meadow in the Golden Trout Wilderness in the Sequoia National Forest. Forest managers are in the process of closing several trails to keep hikers from walking into the fire area. A map of the closure area will soon be posted on this website.
Part of Lion Meadow is privately owned by R.M. Pyles Boys Camp. Crews are implementing structure protection by constructing fireline as the wildfire burns within and around the private property. Crews mopped up any hot spots directly adjacent to the structures over the weekend to protect them.
Firefighters are improving trails, utilizing Minimum Impact Suppression Tactics (MIST), so they can be used as containment lines to stop the spread of the Lion Fire. This fire is burning through mostly ground fuels in this remote part of the Wilderness. Efforts to contain the fire will be made along routes where firefighters can work safely by avoiding stands of dead trees and inaccessible terrain.
Nearby communities should anticipate smoke settling into the valleys in the late evening and early morning hours. This is based upon inversion patterns that hold the smoke in low-lying areas. In the evenings, down canyon winds may push the smoke down the Kern River drainage. Fire managers will be working with the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District to monitor smoke emissions and their impacts. Please refer to the Smoke Forecast under the related incident links section on this website for the most up to date smoke information.

Basic Information

Current as of 10/3/2017, 11:13:31 AM

Incident Type Wildfire

Cause Lightning

Date of Origin Sunday September 24th, 2017 approx. 05:00 PM

Location Near Lion Meadow in the Golden Trout Wilderness, Sequoia National Forest

Incident Commander Jack Medina

Current Situation

Total Personnel 150

Size 3,500 Acres

Outlook

Remarks 

Forest Closure Order will soon be closing trails in the Golden Trout Wilderness north of Grey Meadow, west of Trout Meadow, and east of Nelson Cabin.