The Delta Fire ignited on September 5 , 2018 , at 6:32 a.m. PDT , 2 miles north of Lakehead , California . The fire rapidly grew in size , crossing over Interstate 5 between Lakehead , California , and Castella , California , which forced the interstate to be shut down from September 5 to September 10 . On September 10 , the fire merged with the nearby Hirz Fire to the east , and by September 11 , the fire was only a few miles away from burning into the already-contained Carr Fire to the southwest . On September 12 , the Delta Fire reached and was only 17 % contained . On September 13 , the northern flank of the fire flared up again and shut down Interstate 5 again for six hours during the afternoon . During the next few days , the Delta Fire continued to grow in size , albeit at a slow rate , while firefighters continued making progress on containing the wildfire , with the fire reaching and 76 % containment by September 17 . On September 18 , firefighters had contained most of the Delta Fire 's northern flank , while flames on the fire 's southwestern flank continued to spread , nearly reaching the Carr Fire 's burn area . Late on September 19 , the Delta Fire had grown to , while containment increased to 88 % , with the southwestern flank of the wildfire being the only active portion of the fire . On September 24 , the Delta Fire had grown to , while containment increased to 98 % . On September 25 , a spot fire broke out in Bear Gulch , outside of the southwestern perimeter of the Delta Fire , which quickly reached by the next morning . On September 27 , a second , smaller spot fire had broken out to the south of the larger spot fire , situated south of Damnation Creek , which was estimated at . The first spot fire continued to spread uncontained , while the main body of the Delta Fire was contained ; by September 29 , the first spot fire had exceeded in size , increasing the total burn area of the Delta Fire to , and dropping the overall containment of the Delta Fire to 97 % . The spot fires were at 0 % containment . On September 30 , the Delta Fire expanded to , with containment remaining at 97 % . The fire did not experience any further growths for the next several days , while containment generally remained at 97 % up until October 5 . Afterward , the Delta Fire experienced another small growth , increasing to . On October 7 , the Delta Fire was fully contained , without any further increases in size
Hirz Fire
Hirz Fire
Delta Fire