FOREST RANCH, California – Firefighters made progress and were helped by improving weather Sunday in the battle against wildfires that are covering large areas and leaving a trail of damage across the western United States, but more evacuations and resources were needed as thousands of people battled the flames.
The so-called Park Fire, the largest wildfire in California this year, was one of the more than 100 flames burning across the U.S. on Sunday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were caused by the weather, with increase in climate change the frequency of lightning strikes as the western US faces scorching heat and extremely dry conditions.
The Park Fire burned an area larger than the city of Los Angeles on Sunday, darkening the sky with smoke and engulfing thousands of firefighters. The fire spread over 562 square miles (1,455 square kilometers) inland in Northern California.
Millions of people were under air quality advisories Sunday in the northwestern U.S. and western Canada.
The Park fire began Wednesday when authorities say a man pushed a burning car down an embankment in Chico and then fled. A man accused of setting the fire was arrested on Thursday and is due in court on Monday.
Firefighters increased containment to 12% on Saturday, helped by colder temperatures and more humidity, officials said.
While cooler-than-average temperatures are expected through the middle of this week, that doesn’t mean existing fires will go away, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
A “red flag” warning was in effect for the region Sunday, meaning dry fuels and stronger winds were increasing fire danger, the weather service said.
The National Weather Service also issued “red flag” warnings Sunday for large swaths of Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, as well as parts of California.
Fires raged in eastern Oregon and eastern Idaho, where authorities were assessing damage from a cluster of fires called the Gwen Fire, estimated at 43 square miles (111 square kilometers) on Sunday.
In California, Paradise and several other Butte County communities were under an evacuation warning Sunday. However, the fire’s southernmost front, which is closer to Paradise, “looked pretty good,” Cal Fire operations section chief Jeremy Pierce said around noon.
Authorities did not expect it to advance into Chico, a city of about 100,000 people west of Paradise, and over the next three days crews plan to extinguish hot spots and remove hazards, Pierce said.
The focus on saving lives and threatened property has shifted to tackling the fire head-on, Park Fire headquarters spokesman Jay Tracy told The Associated Press by phone Sunday.
Nearly 4,000 firefighters are battling the blaze, assisted by several helicopters and air tankers. The reinforcements are expected to provide much-needed rest for local firefighters, some of whom have been working around the clock since Wednesday, Tracy said.
“This fire is surprising a lot of people with its explosive growth,” he said. “It’s something incomparable.”
The Park Fire made comparisons with the year 2018 Campfire which destroyed Paradise, killing 85 people and setting fire to 11,000 homes.
Cohasset displayed remnants of Sunday’s devastation. Mailboxes and vehicles were covered with pink fire retardant dropped from aircraft. The shells of a washer and dryer were surrounded by burning debris and a charred motorcycle sat upright, balancing on its rims after its tires apparently melted.
Another part of Cohasset was relatively unscathed, said Garrett Sjolund, Butte County fire chief.
“We have an unburned island in that community that we continue to patrol and make sure there are no hotspots on it,” Sjolund said.
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 that several hot spots were reported nearby, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said.
“It illustrates how quickly things can change,” Honea said. “We were all prepared to be able to ease that order to get people back there.”
In Southern California, about 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate because of a fire that ripped through the Sequoia National Forest. The wind-driven fire was fueled by dry, dead plants and moved quickly, consuming more than 60 square miles in four days, said Andrew Freeborn of the Kern County Fire Department.
No deaths were reported from the Park and Borel fires, but some people were increasing the danger for everyone by disregarding evacuation orders, Freeborn said.
“When people try to ignore orders and then call for rescue, it takes firefighters away from the task of fighting fires,” he said. “This fire is moving at such a pace and with such intensity that people shouldn’t think it can wait until the last minute. They need to get out of the way.”
The historic mining town of Havilah and several other communities were “heavily affected” by the fires, but it was too early to count the homes burned, Freeborn said.
The Park Fire destroyed at least 66 structures and damaged five others, Tracy said. Authorities initially believed 134 structures were lost, based on drone footage, but lowered the number after assessing the damage in person, although they acknowledged the number could rise.
“Every day this number has the potential to grow. Our crews obviously do not do damage inspections when there is an active fire in an area,” Tracy said.
Jerry White, 72, left his home in Magalia, where he had lived for 50 years, when authorities issued an evacuation warning. Years earlier, White suffered 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 some of the worst pain you can endure,” White said. “I wanted to get out of dodge.
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Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. AP U.S. reporters who contributed include Eugene Garcia, David Sharp, Becky Bohrer, John Antczak, Rio Yamat, David Sharp, Holly Ramer, Sarah Brumfield, Claire Rush, Terry Chea, Scott Sonner, Martha Bellisle and Amy Hanson.
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