Elephant Fire in Tahoe National Forest burns 15,500 acres, all evacuation orders lifted

All evacuation orders and warnings have been lifted for the Elephant Fire, which has burned more than 15,500 acres in Northern California's Tahoe National Forest.

U.S. Forest Service officials said the Elephant Fire, burning in Sierra County at the southern ends of Lassen and Plumas counties, was 42% contained as of Tuesday night.

In a Tuesday evening update, fire officials said the area of the fire experienced "wetting rain over the last 24 hours," which allowed crews to strengthen containment lines. Though, officials warn that a warming and drying trend through the rest of the week may create challenges for continued fire suppression efforts.

Multiple evacuation orders and warnings had been in place for parts of Plumas and Lassen counties, but all have been lifted as of Tuesday.

The fire started Saturday afternoon to the northeast of the community of Loyalton, located within the Sierra Nevada mountains just west of the Sierra Valley. The fire has primarily burned in grass with some snags, brush and timber, and is burning within the 2020 Loyalton Fire scar.

The Sierra County Sheriff's Office said on Monday that it was investigating a report of an illegal drone flying in the vicinity of the fire.

"The preliminary investigation indicates the drone was not only operated in a manner that interfered with active firefighting aircraft, but was also flown at an altitude that exceeded legal operating limits and within airspace that had been closed under a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) established for wildfire suppression operations," the sheriff's office said.

Air and ground resources have responded to battle the fire, building bulldozer lines and dropping fire retardant and buckets of water.

It's unknown what started the fire.

Loyalton is about 140 miles northeast of Sacramento and about 44 miles northwest of Reno.