The Park Fire in Northern California grew rapidly to more than 350,000 acres Saturday, officials said, making what was already California’s largest wildfire this year among the largest in state history.
The fire, which officials suspect was caused by arson, started near Chico and then rapidly exploded, stoked by extreme heat and dense, dry brush. It burned 4,000 to 5,000 acres per hour and scorched rugged, difficult terrain filled with grass, brush, timber and dead vegetation, officials said Friday.
The fire was 10 percent contained Saturday evening, according to Cal Fire, and prompted evacuation orders in Butte, Shasta and Tehama counties as it moved rapidly on its northern and eastern flanks. The blaze has been progressing north toward the city of Redding, crossing Highway 36 and threatening small towns such as Shingletown and Manton, according to fire maps and experts.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency Friday in Butte and Tehama counties in response to the fire, saying in a statement that “we are using every available tool to protect lives and property as our fire and emergency response teams work around the clock to combat these challenging fires.”
Friday’s erratic winds and high temperatures made offensive measures difficult, authorities said, but Saturday’s lower temperatures, slower winds and higher humidity brought improvement.
“We’re having great success today as that fire lays down,” Jeremy Pierce, an operations section chief for Cal Fire, said at a briefing Saturday, using a term that means the fire is burning less actively. “With that fire laying down, our crews are strong and going out there and getting this while the weather is in our favor.”
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End of carouselThousands of people in Butte County, where the fire started, and in Tehama and Shasta counties have had to evacuate. CalFire said in an update Saturday that 4,200 structures are threatened and 134 have been destroyed.
On Friday evening, the town of Paradise, which was devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018, issued an evacuation warning due to “fire behavior and predicted winds” and urged residents to prepare to evacuate and await further information.
Lassen Volcanic National Park, home to numerous volcanoes, closed Saturday due to the fire, evacuating campgrounds and canceling reservations.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, described the wildfire’s spread as “astonishing” in a post on social media and said it is “re-writing the record books.”
“This is California in the Pyrocene,” Swain wrote, referring to an era characterized by human-caused fire activity, “and a couple of mild fire years (2022/3) don’t alter that long-term trajectory.”
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As more than two dozen other wildfires burn in California, a blaze that ignited Wednesday in Sequoia National Forest has more than tripled in size since Friday morning. It now covers about 33,000 acres and is completely uncontained, Jim Snow, an incident commander with California Interagency Incident Management Team 14, said at a news conference Saturday.
Several people have experienced heat-related injuries related to the Borel Fire, and at least one person experienced a burn to their arm, Snow said.
The blaze has swept through the communities of Havilah and Piute Meadow Ranches, the U.S. Forest Service said Saturday. Photos showed destruction in Havilah, a historic mining town.
The area is “very fire-prone,” Snow said. “One match, one spark — that starts rapid growth.”
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