The largest wildfire currently burning in California grew to more than 350,000 acres on Saturday, but there was hope that progress in containment as well as a cooldown would help defeat it.
The park fire was started Wednesday by a man who pushed a burning vehicle into a ravine full of dry brush at a park in Chico, authorities allege. The fire broke out and quickly doubled in acreage and then doubled again amid high temperatures, dry brush and gusty winds.
Similar conditions have plagued the West this month, with forested areas in Oregon and Washington, as well as parts of Canada, going up in smoke.
Cal Fire officials said the Park Fire has so far destroyed 134 structures as it marches north from Chico and spreads from Butte into Tehama County. After three days without containment, firefighters had the fire 10% contained on Saturday.
Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said both mandatory and recommended evacuations were in effect depending on location.
President Joe Biden was briefed on the park fire and “directed his team to do everything possible to support continued fire suppression,” according to a statement released by the White House on Sunday.
On Friday, part of the Lassen National Forest near the Park Fire was closed as a precaution, according to a memo from Forest Supervisor Deb Bumpus.
Also on Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Butte and Tehama counties, as well as 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 apply for unemployment benefits. On Saturday, Newsom’s office said he also secured a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help firefighters battle the Borel Fire in Kern County.
The fire east of Bakersfield started July 24 on federal land and burned 31,000 acres, the governor’s office said.
The current fires in California have burned 626,600 acres so far, Cal Fire said. Across the country 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 US were the cause of evacuation orders, he said. Fire weather watches and warnings went into effect Saturday in parts of Oregon, Washington, Nevada, southern Idaho, Utah and California, the center said.
About 1.5 million people in the U.S. on Saturday night were covered by a red flag warning or fire weather warning issued by the National Weather Service. A red flag warning means that the main fire conditions – high temperatures, dry air and gusty winds – are forecast.
Earth scientists say climate change may be making the fire season longer, fires more intense and weather more extreme.
Those on the front lines of the Park Fire near the town of Paradise, which was devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018, were helped by temperatures 10 to 15 degrees below Friday’s highs, the National Weather Service said.
More of the same was forecast midweek as a cold upper depression moved west to east across California and beyond, the weather service said. But heat could return to the Chico region before the start of the weekend, he said.
Jeremy Pierce, the state’s chief of fire operations, said cooler weather Saturday caused the park fire to “calm down.” During a news conference, Pierce said firefighters are attacking the flames again “while time is on our side.”
Todd Miyazawa contributed.
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