The largest wildfire currently burning in California grew to more than 350,000 acres Saturday, but there was hope that progress in containing it, as well as a cool-down, will help defeat it.
The Park Fire was started on Wednesday by a man who pushed a flaming vehicle into a gulley filled with dried brush at a park in Chico, authorities allege. The blaze erupted and quickly doubled in acreage and then doubled again amid hot temperatures, dry brush and gusty wind.
Similar conditions have plagued the West this month, with forest areas in states such as Oregon and Washington, as well as in parts of Canada, going up in smoke.
Cal Fire officials said the Park Fire had so far destroyed 134 structures as it marched northward from Chico and spread from Butte to Tehama County. After three days of no containment, firefighters Saturday had the blaze 10% contained.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said mandatory and recommended evacuations were in effect depending on location.
On Friday, part of the Lassen National Forest near the Park Fire was closed as a precaution, according to a memo by forest supervisor Deb Bumpus.
Also on Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Butte and Tehama counties, as well as for Plumas County, home to the much smaller Gold Complex Fire, now at 3,007 acres with 50% containment, according to Cal Fire.
His office said the proclamations would make it easier for fire victims to replace lost identification and file for unemployment benefits. On Saturday, Newsom’s office said it also secured a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help firefighters battle the Borel Fire in Kern County.
That blaze east of Bakersfield started July 24 on federal land and has burned 31,000 acres, the governor’s office said.
Current fires in California have burned 626,600 acres so far, Cal Fire said. Nationwide there were 102 large active wildfires, the vast majority in the West, blamed for charring more than 2 million acres, the National Interagency Fire Center said.
Twenty-one wildfires in the United States were the cause of evacuation orders, it said. Fire weather watches and warning were in effect Saturday for parts of Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Southern Idaho, Utah and California, the center said.
About 1.5 million people in the United States late Saturday were covered by a red flag warning or a fire weather watch issued by the National Weather Service. A red flag warning means prime fire conditions — high temperatures, dry air and gusty winds — are in the forecast.
Earth scientists say climate change may be making the fire season longer, blazes more intense and weather more extreme.
Those on the front lines of the Park Fire near the city of Paradise, which was devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018, were aided by temperatures 10 to 15 degrees below Friday’s highs, the National Weather Service said.
More of the same was predicted through midweek as a cool, upper trough moved from west to east across California and beyond, the weather service said. But heat could return for the area of Chico before the start of the weekend, it said.
Jeremy Pierce, a state fire operations chief, said cooler weather on Saturday had the Park Fire “laying down.” During a news conference, Pierce said firefighters were attacking flames anew “while the weather is in our favor.”
Todd Miyazawa contributed.
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