A small railroad company has paid a settlement for a pair of fires they started in Modoc County. The Gulch Fire started along railroad tracks near Howard’s Gulch in Modoc National Forest in July of 2014 and burned 791 acres. That followed a different fire in the same area 2 months earlier that burned 49 acres. Both fires were blamed on an improperly maintained railroad locomotive. After figuring suppression costs, interest and penalties, Lake Railway has paid just over a Million Dollars to the federal government.