A long exposure photo shows the Park Fire burning on Highway 32 in the Forest Ranch community of Butte County, California, Thursday, July 25, 2024.
Noah Berger/AP
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Noah Berger/AP
California’s largest fire broke out on Friday night, spreading quickly amid extremely dry fuel and threatening thousands of homes as firefighters scrambled to respond to the danger.
The park fire’s intensity and rapid spread led fire officials to draw unwelcome comparisons to the horrific 2018 Camp Fire that burned out of control near Paradise, killing 85 people and burning 11,000 homes.
So far, more than 130 structures have been destroyed by the fire and thousands more are threatened as evacuations have been ordered in four counties: Butte, Plumas, Tehama and Shasta. The blaze, which covered 480 square miles (1,243 square kilometers) on Friday night, was moving rapidly north and east after starting Wednesday and authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a ravine in Chico. and then calmly mingled with others who fled the scene.
“There’s a lot of fuel out there, and it’s going to continue to happen at such a rapid rate,” Cal Fire Incident Commander Billy See said at a news conference. He said the fire was burning by an hour Friday afternoon. Spreads 8 square miles (21 square kilometers).
Firefighter Christian Moorhouse battles the Park Fire in the Cohasset community of Butte County, California, on Thursday, July 25, 2024. houses.
Noah Berger/AP
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Noah Berger/AP
As the fire spread north toward Highway 36 and east toward the park, officials at Lassen Volcano National Park evacuated staff from the Mineral community, home to the park’s headquarters, a community of about 120 people.
Communities were under siege in other parts of the western United States and Canada on Friday as a fast-moving blaze sparked by lightning sent people fleeing on fire-ringed roads in rural Idaho, while a new blaze broke out in eastern Washington. Causing people to evacuate.
A pilot has been found dead after a small air tanker crashed in eastern Oregon while fighting wildfires spreading across several western states.
More than 110 fires were burning in the United States on Friday, covering an area of 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers), according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some of this is caused by weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the region experiences record high temperatures and extremely dry conditions.
A fire in eastern Washington destroyed three homes and five outbuildings near the community of Taylor, which was evacuated Friday afternoon, said Ryan Rodruck, spokesman for the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Firefighters were able to contain the Columbia Basin fire in Spokane County to about half a square mile (1.3 square kilometers), he said.
Carly Parker was one of hundreds of people who fled their homes as the Park Fire approached in Chico, California. When a fire broke out across the street, Parker decided to leave the Forest Ranch residence with his family. She had previously been forced to leave two homes due to fires and said she had little hope that her residence would survive unscathed.
“I guess I felt like I was in danger because the police came to our house because we had signed up for an early evacuation warning and they ran to their vehicles after telling us we needed to evacuate ourselves but they wouldn’t. Come back,” Five Parker, a mother of two, said.
Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested early Thursday in connection with the fire and is being held without bail pending an arraignment Monday, officials said. The district attorney sent an email asking if the suspect had legal representation or someone who could comment on his behalf, but received no response.
Forest Service spokesman Adrian Freeman said firefighters were making progress on another fire in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada state line. Most of the 1,000 residents evacuated by the lightning-sparked Gold Complex fire returned home on Friday. Some crews are heading out to help put out a park fire.
“As the (park) fires out west have proven, some of these fires are absolutely explosive and can burn at an unimaginable rate,” said Tim Hike, Forest Service incident commander for the Golden Complex Fire. ” said Friday, located 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Reno. “Fires don’t look that bad until they actually happen. Then it might be too late.”
Forest Ranch evacuee Sherry Alpers fled with her 12 puppies and decided to stay in her car outside the Chico Red Cross shelter after learning the animals were not allowed inside. After learning the dogs would be kept in cages, she refused to go to another shelter because her dogs had been roaming freely at her home.
Alpers said she doesn’t know if her home survived the fire, but she said she doesn’t care about material things as long as her dogs are safe.
“I’m a little worried, but not that worried,” she said. “If it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Brian Bowles also lives in his car outside the shelter with his dog, Diamon. He said he didn’t know if his mobile home was still standing.
Powers said he only had a $100 gift card he received from the United Way, which distributed it to evacuees.
“The question now is, should I stay comfortably in a motel room for one night? Or put some gas in the car and sleep here?” he said. “Hard choices.”
In Oregon, Grant County search and rescue teams spotted a small single-engine air tanker Friday morning fighting the 219-square-mile (567-square-kilometer) Falls Fire near the town of Seneca and Malheur National Forest. disappeared. The pilot died, Bureau of Land Management information officer Lisa Clark said. No one else was aboard when the plane, contracted by the bureau, crashed into steep forested terrain.
The worst hit so far has been Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies, where a fast-moving wildfire forced 25,000 people to flee and destroyed the park’s namesake town, a World Heritage site.
A car drives through the growing River Fire before U.S. Highway 12 is closed Thursday, July 25, 2024, near Myrtle, Idaho. Lightning strikes sparked fast-moving wildfires in Idaho, prompting the evacuation of several communities.
August Frank/AP/Lewiston Tribune
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August Frank/AP/Lewiston Tribune
In Idaho, lightning strikes triggered fast-moving wildfires and the evacuation of multiple communities. The fire burned about 31 square miles (80 square kilometers) Friday afternoon.
Video posted on social media showed one man saying he heard explosions as he fled from Giulietta, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of the University of Idaho campus in Moscow. Just before the fire broke out Thursday, just over 600 residents of the town had been evacuated, along with several other communities near the Clearwater River and the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery, which raises salmon.
Officials said Friday morning there was no estimate yet on the number of burned structures in Idaho and no information on damage to urban communities.
Oregon still has the largest active fire in the United States, the Durkee Fire, which along with the Cattle Fire has burned nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers). The virus remains unpredictable, with only 20% contained on Friday, according to government website InciWeb.
The National Interagency Fire Center said there have been more than 27,000 fires burning more than 5,800 square miles (15,000 square kilometers) in the United States this year, while in Canada more than 3,700 fires have burned more than 8,000 square miles (22,800 square kilometers), according to the National Interagency Fire Center. A state wildland fire situation report released Wednesday, so far.
