Firefighters are battling a massive wildfire that has torn through northern California at a rate of 5,000 acres per hour.
Nearly 4,000 firefighters are battling the Park Fire, which by Sunday had burned more than 360,000 acres, making it the seventh-largest ever recorded in the state’s history.
The blaze has prompted orders for some 4,200 people to flee their Butte County homes, including residents in the town of Paradise – which was ravaged in 2018 by the deadly Camp Fire and again by the Dixie Fire three years later.
The Park Fire broke out on Wednesday, when authorities say someone pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. A man accused of setting the fire was arrested on Thursday and is due in court today.
Firefighters increased containment to 12 per cent on Sunday, aided partly by improving weather, cooler temperatures and more humidity, officials said.
Nearly 4,000 firefighters are battling the Park Fire, pictured burning along Highway 32 near Butte Meadows, California on Sunday. The blaze has burned more than 360,000 acres, making it the seventh-largest ever recorded in the state’s history
The blaze has prompted orders for some 4,200 people to flee their Butte County homes, including residents in the town of Paradise – which was ravaged in 2018 by the deadly Camp Fire and again by the Dixie Fire three years later
Some 4,000 personnel are working on the Park Fire, which is burning through a largely rural, mountainous area about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of state capital Sacramento. Aircraft and bulldozers have been drawn in the fight.
The fire is split between Butte County, where 53,000 acres have burned, and neighboring Tehema County, where 304,000 acres have gone up in flames.
The blaze has generated an enormous column of dense gray smoke which has also been blown over nearby states.
Progress was made amid light wind and cool weather Saturday, allowing firefighters to declare 12 percent of the blaze controlled, Cal Fire incident commander Billy See told a news conference.
But he warned that as of Sunday, ‘we’re starting to get some solar heating, and we’re also getting increased winds in the upper canyons’.
Operations section chief Mark Brunton said firefighters are facing multiple challenges including rugged terrain, adding: ‘We’re starting to see increased fire activity’.
Reinforcements have been called in and are expected to give much-needed rest to local firefighters, some of whom have been working nonstop since Wednesday..
‘This fire is surprising a lot of people with its explosive growth,’ Jay Tracy, a Park Fire headquarters spokesperson, said. ‘It is kind of unparalleled.’
A firefighter sprays water on the Park Fire in Lomo, California on Sunday. The fire is split between Butte County, where 53,000 acres have burned, and neighboring Tehema County, where 304,000 acres have gone up in flames
Progress was made amid light wind and cool weather Saturday, allowing firefighters to declare 12 percent of the blaze controlled. Pictured are firefighters working to control the Park Fire, near Forest Ranch, California on Sunday
Trees burn from the Park Fire in Tehama County on Sunday. The blaze broke out on Wednesday, when officials say someone pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled
Fire officials said crews are facing multiple challenges including rugged terrain. Firefighters are pictured standing by the road near a fire, near Jonesville, California on Sunday
Aircraft and bulldozers have been drawn in the fight against the Park Fire. Crews are pictured near Highway 32, in Mill Creek, California on Sunday
The Park Fire had scorched an area greater than the city of Los Angeles as of Sunday, darkening the sky with smoke and engaging thousands of firefighters.
The blaze spanned more than 562 square miles of inland Northern California. No deaths have been reported, but the blaze has destroyed at least 66 structures and damaged five others, added Tracy.
Authorities initially believed 134 structures were lost, based on drone footage, but lowered the number after assessing the damage in-person, while acknowledging the figure could increase.
Millions of people were under air quality alerts on Sunday in the north-western US and western Canada.
Although cooler-than-average temperatures are expected through the middle of this week, that does not mean existing fires will disappear, warned Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre in Maryland.
A ‘red flag’ warning was in effect for the region on Sunday, meaning dry fuels and stronger winds were increasing the fire danger, the weather service said.
University of California, Los Angeles climate scientist Daniel Swain predicts the Park Fire ‘will likely be burning for weeks, if not months’ and told The New York Times that there is ‘almost no possibility’ it will be contained in the near future.
Managing evacuation orders in the area has been complex. Authorities were about to downgrade an order to an evacuation warning for Forest Ranch when they learned a number of hot spots were reported nearby, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said.
‘That illustrates how rapidly things can change,’ Honea said. ‘We were all set to be able to reduce that order to get people back in there.’
In Southern California, about 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate because of a fire sweeping through the Sequoia National Forest. The wind-driven blaze was fed by dried, dead plants and moving fast, eating up more than 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) in four days, Andrew Freeborn of the Kern County Fire Department said.
The blaze has generated an enormous column of dense gray smoke. Firefighters are pictured battling the Park Fire near Highway 32, in Mill Creek, California on Sunday
A ‘red flag’ warning was in effect for the region on Sunday, meaning dry fuels and stronger winds were increasing the fire danger. Pictured is the Park Fire burning along Highway 32 near Butte Meadows, California on Sunday
Firefighters work to control the Park Fire along Highway 32, near Jonesville, California
A firefighter works the Park Fire, which has currently burned over 353,194 acres according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), in Lomo, California
A firefighter from the city of Monterey monitors flareups from the Park Fire near Butte Meadows, California on Sunday
Officials did not expect the blaze to move farther into Chico, a city of about 100,000 people just west of Paradise, and over the next three days crews plan to extinguish hot spots and remove hazards, Pierce said.
Chico is only about 15 miles from Paradise, a city devastated by the 2018 Camp Fire that ranked as California’s most deadly ever, claiming 85 lives.
The fire’s southernmost front, which is closest to Paradise, was ‘looking really good,’ Cal Fire operations section chief Jeremy Pierce said around midday Sunday.
But residents, especially those who lived through the ‘traumatizing’ Camp Fire six years ago, say the latest blaze is ‘hard to talk about’ and a bit ‘triggering’.
Paradise Mayor Ron Lassonde told KCRA: ‘Every once in a while, we smell smoke or see smoke like that, it does trigger us. It triggers the people here in Paradise. When you go through trauma, that’s what happens.’
Ava Elsner, who lived through the Camp Fire, added that having your entire community engulfed by flames is ‘most traumatizing, terrifying, and saddening thing’.
‘I don’t want anyone else to experience this,’ she added. ‘To see my parents go through this is just really hard. I want to stay strong for them and comfort them the way that they did for me. And it’s just, it’s just difficult.’
Jerry White, 72, left his Magalia home of 50 years when authorities issued an evacuation warning this week. Years earlier White sustained third-degree burns and the memory of that pain made him take the warning seriously.
‘I don’t want to catch fire again. It’s one of the worst pains you can endure,’ White said. ‘I wanted to get out of dodge. Burns are bad.’
A plan drops fire retardant on the Park Fire near Forest Ranch, Calif., Sunday, July 28, 2024
Firefighters wait for supplies and orders before attacking the Park Fire, which has currently burned over 353,194 acres according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), in Tehama County, California
A bulldozer crew watch the Park Fire from a hillside looking down on Highway 32, near Forest Ranch, California on Sunday
The Park Fire burns along Highway 32 near Butte Meadows, California
A firefighter works to control the Park Fire, near Forest Ranch, California
Firefighters monitor flames from the Park Fire along Highway 36, near Lyonsville, California
The Park Fire, the largest wildfire in California this year, was one of more than 100 blazes burning in the US on Sunday, according to the National Interagency Fire Centre.
Fires burned across eastern Oregon and eastern Idaho, where officials were assessing damage from a group of blazes called the Gwen Fire, which was estimated at 43 square miles as of Sunday.
Experts say climate change, accelerated by human action, is leading to more extreme weather events.
In Oregon, the Durkee Fire, which was sparked by a lightning strike earlier this month, has consumed nearly 290,000 acres and was about 50 percent contained, the state’s wildfire response and recovery agency said.
In western Canada, wildfires destroyed nearly a third of the beloved tourist town of Jasper before they were put under control on Sunday.
In western Canada, wildfires destroyed nearly a third of the beloved tourist town of Jasper before they were put under control on Sunday. Pictured is the burned remains of a vehicle in Jasper, Canada on July 26, 2024
A grizzly bear guards a carcass after a wildfire sweeping through Alberta’s mountainous Jasper National Park left charred forests, near the town of Jasper, Alberta, Canada on July 26, 2024
Fire crews work to put out hotspots in the Maligne Lodge in Jasper, Alberta, Canada, on Friday, July 26, 2024
The remains of someone’s wine collection in Jasper, Alberta, Canada, on Friday, July 26, 2024
