Lightning strike sparks tree fire in Glen Ellen

A lightning strike sparked a tree fire in Glen Ellen on Tuesday evening.

Firefighters from Kenwood Fire Protection District were alerted to the blaze at 6:38 p.m., according to Kenwood firefighter Doug Todd.

Crews found the tree on fire up a hill nearly 300 yards off the road at 8610 Bennett Valley Road, where they extinguished the flames with the help of firefighters from Santa Rosa and Cal Fire.

The downpour of rain and hail that accompanied the lightning helped extinguish the flames before they could spread, according to fire officials.

“Everything was really wet up there, it kind of looked like it snowed,“ Todd said. ”There was a good patch of hail on the ground, but the tree was going pretty good. There was a lot of energy from it getting hit.”

It took the firefighters around three hours to fell the tree and extinguish the flames, according to Todd.

Between 10 and 20 lightning strikes were recorded in Sonoma County, according to National Weather Service meteorologists. Napa and Solano counties also got some lightning.

Video from NBC Bay Area showed the blaze:

Elsewhere in Sonoma County, residents took to social media to show off their hail-covered backyards and streets.

Check out the gallery above to see photos of the Tuesday storm taken by Sonoma County residents.