Saw the smoke from this wildfire yesterday

While we were rolling out of the hills at about 5pm, we saw some smoke in the distance that was certainly this fire getting going.

Later, when heading back over the pass after dinner, it had grown to throw an impressive plume of smoke into the sky.

Fire officials tell Channel 2 News that the 1,300 acre Washington Fire burning south of the Minden/Gardnerville area was started by lightning. The fire started just after 7 p.m. on Friday in the Silver Creek Drainage area which is 8-10 miles south of Markleeville, California. 

The news report at the link above says it started at 7pm, but that is wrong by at least a couple of hours.  We saw it getting started at about 5pm, and at that point it had been going for probably 30 minutes.  There was no thunder or lightning in the area that we saw.  We were on a ridgeline, and although windy, it was hardly a "high wind" situation, although it very well could be windy today.  It's interesting how different our observations were ten miles away with what this news article reports.

The fire yesterday from just outside of Minden, Nevada at about 7:30, looking south.