Thousands of residents were forced to evacuate their homes because of a wildfire in Northern California, officials said Wednesday.
The Thompson Fire broke out Tuesday morning in Oroville, about 65 miles north of Sacramento. As of Wednesday night, it had grown to 3,568 acres with 7% containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. The cause is under investigation.
Authorities said 28,000 people were ordered to evacuate. By Wednesday evening, some of those orders were reduced to multi-zone advisories, and residents in those areas were told they could return home, according to the Butte County Sheriff’s Office.
Rachael Thompson, 41, an Oroville resident who lives outside the evacuation lines, posted vvideos on Facebook showing the flames engulfing nearby land.
“We have four air purifiers working,” Thompson told NBC News on Wednesday. “It’s still extremely smoky, but nothing like last night. It was suffocating.”
The flames have destroyed at least four structures and threatened another 12,000 people and are affecting several power lines, Butte County fire spokesman Rick Carhart said. Almost 1,500 people were mobilized to fight the fire.
There were eight confirmed civilian or firefighter injuries, according to Cal Fire.
Oroville is no stranger to devastating fires, including the Campfire 2018which killed 85 people and displaced around 50,000 others.
O Bear Fire 2020 took Thompson’s neighbors home.
“We’ve been through so much that it’s just second nature. Now we know what we need to do and remain vigilant,” said Thompson.
Using a scanner app on his phone, Thompson listened to officers as they decided to evacuate the area where his twin sister, Crystal Kehle, lived. Thus, Kehle managed to pack her bags and leave for her sister’s house, alongside her husband and father-in-law, when the official evacuation order was announced. Butte County also created two evacuation shelters.
“California is using every tool available to fight this fire and will continue to support impacted communities,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement. declare a state of emergency to Butte County.
In a statement Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it approved federal funds Tuesday night to help California suppress the fire.
Dan Collins, fire captain with the Cal Fire County Fire Department, said Thompson was not as aggressive as previous deadly fires the county had experienced. Collins said he is “very optimistic” about stopping the spread of Thompson, especially as Cal Fire has activated an incident management team that has brought more resources and people to the front lines.
“It helps us as a local fire department because it’s hard for us to support a major incident like this,” Collins said.
The Thompson Fire is one of more than a dozen that remain burning in the state as a dangerous heat wave sweeps the West ahead of the July 4th long weekend. Excessive heat and the risk of wildfires have already affected vacation plans, with California State Parks announcing the cancellation of Oroville fireworks celebration. The cities of Saint Helen It is Antioch also suspended Independence Day plans.
Thompson said his family also decided to cancel July 4th plans.
“We told our family members that we are very heavy now. Let’s not celebrate,” she said.
A total of 2,934 wildfires in California have burned more than 139,500 acres this year alone.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
