A wildfire burning in Siskiyou County appears to have caused tens of thousands of Klamath River fish to die, according to the Karuk Tribe.

The tribe said the dead fish of all species were found Friday near Happy Camp along the main stem of the Klamath River, between Indian Creek which flows through Happy Camp and Seiad Creek, about 20 miles further upstream.

Tribal fisheries biologists believe the phenomenon is due to a combination of flash flooding and the McKinney Fire, according to Craig Tucker, a policy advocate for the Karuk Tribe, who shared the photos on Facebook.

"Observations suggest that this was a temporal event. That is to say, a massive debris slide out of areas impacted by the McKinney Fire entered the mainstream Klamath River at or near Humbug Creek and McKinney Creeks. This led to dissolved oxygen levels dropping to 0 on the nights of Aug. 3 and 4, according to Karuk Seiad Creek water quality station.," Tucker said. "The result was a fish kill in this reach of the river. We think the impact is limited to 10 or 20 miles of river in this reach and the fish we are seeing in Happy Camp and below are floating downstream from the ‘kill zone.'"

Tucker said the tribe is still working to better understand the event, and they continue to monitor the situation.

The McKinney Fire, which has burned more than 90 square miles in the Klamath National Forest, engulfed the Klamath River community, where about 200 people lived.

The fire also took the lives of four people and reduced most of the homes and businesses to rubble.

Scientists have said climate change will continue to make wildfires more destructive, as seen in recent years.