The fast-moving Park Fire, which started Wednesday in Butte County, has reached Shasta County and forced evacuations in Shingletown, Manton and as far east as Lassen Volcanic National Park.
As the more than 350,012-acre fire continued to burn out of control, areas south of Highway 44 were under evacuation orders. The massive wildfire has already scorched a large portion of eastern Tehama County as it continued to work its way north toward Mineral.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an emergency Friday due to the damage from the blaze. On Saturday, the blaze was 10% percent contained, had destroyed 20 structures and put another 4,200 structures under threat. It was not clear late Saturday how many of the destroyed or threatened structures were homes.
Here are more updates about the Park Fire.
The Park Fire has now burned into four counties, including Shasta County, according to an updated report from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The wildfire — which started near Chico in Butte County on Wednesday and quickly spread north — raced into Tehama County and has also reached Plumas and Shasta counties, according to the agency's report released Saturday evening.
Cal Fire also confirmed that the Park Fire destroyed 20 structures and 4,200 others were under threat. The agency did not indicate how many of the destroyed structures were residences or where they were located.Said Cal Fire's report: "These numbers will fluctuate over the coming days as they assess the damage."
The Park Fire pushed across State Route 36 in the area of Payne Creek on Friday, July 26.The fire still stands at 350,012 acres and numerous evacuations remain in place, Cal Fire said. The wildfire is 10% contained, according to the report.
The massive Park Fire saw containment rise to 10% on Saturday evening, helped by cooler temperatures and rising humidity, Cal Fire said in its evening update. The blaze still stands at 350,012 acres and evacuations remain in place, Cal Fire said.
Firefighters made a hard push to stop the wildfire at State Highway 36 at the Tehama-Shasta border.Crews battled the northwest edge of the fire using ground and air attacks as the blaze pushed north toward the small town of Manton. Crews tried to stop the blaze from advancing at Paynes Creek on Friday night, but the fire had burned about 5,000 acres north of the highway by Saturday evening and then reached a ridge over the town, Pierce said.
Cal Fire plans to spend Saturday evening into Sunday morning beating the blaze back toward Highway 36.Highway 36 remains closed eastbound at Manton Road and westbound from the Highway 89 junction.
The free assistance phone line 2-1-1 was activated to provide Park Fire information for people in Shasta, Butte and Tehama counties. Evacuees with large animals can call 530-355-7036.
The Park Fire grew another 2,000 acres on Saturday, reaching a size of 350,012 acres as of 4 p.m., according to Cal Fire. "Firefighting personnel continue to face challenging conditions,” according to Cal Fire’s afternoon report.
But cool early morning temperatures as low as 56 degrees in the valley, coupled with humidity almost twice what it was Friday, are helping calm the fire a bit, according to Cal Fire.The massive blaze was still spreading north on Saturday, but firefighters got a little break from the hot dry weather and wind that pushed the fire earlier this week.
Southeast winds picked up Saturday afternoon, reaching 10 mph, with gusts up to 20 mph. Those winds will stick around Saturday night and most of the day Sunday, according to the National Weather Service’s Sacramento branch.
More cooler weather might help calm the fire on Sunday. Shasta County’s early morning temperatures will drop into the low 60s in Redding, according to weather service. Afternoon temperatures stay in the low 90s, so the air and brush won’t be as dry as it has been throughout most of July.
Redding and other Sacramento Valley communities will likely get lot of smoke from the Park Fire throughout the weekend, meteorologists said. Firefighters will have a few cooler days before rising temperatures return on Wednesday.
The Park Fire is burning 348,370 acres, according to the latest report from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The wildfire, still marching northward, crossed State Route 36 in the Paynes Creek area south of Manton at about 9 p.m. on Friday, according to a Record Searchlight staffer who was on the scene. (Video below.)The fire is burning in grass, brush, mixed timber, and dead vegetation.
- In Butte County, 52,190 acres have burned.
- In Tehama County, 255,178 acres have burned.
Damage inspection teams are working in those areas to identify structures that have been damaged or destroyed.
Smoke from the Park Fire is expected to drag down air quality on Saturday, according to the Tehama County Air Pollution Control District.
All open burning is prohibited during this period, the agency said.In an Air Quality Advisory on Friday, the agency said conditions throughout Tehama County would likely vary from “moderate” to “very unhealthy” during the morning and evening hours as smoke from wildfires drifts over the area.
Children and people with respiratory disease, such as asthma, were advised to limit prolonged outdoor exertion, the agency said.
Earlier Friday evening, evacuation orders were extended to the Shingletown area from Black Butte Road on the west to Viola on the east, according to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office. Areas north of Highway 44 were under evacuation warnings.
Wilson Hill Road in Shingletown was closed south of Highway 44 at Woodridge Road, according to emergency scanner traffic.
Crews began to fight the blaze north of Highway 36 Friday night, as it jumped the highway in two places near Paynes Creek, about 20 miles east of Red Bluff.
Officials at Lassen park started evacuating the park’s headquarters in Mineral on Friday afternoon as the Park Fire made its way up Highway 36 toward Lassen’s south entrance.
Lassen Park spokeswoman Sierra Coon said the park headquarters is about 7 miles from Lassen’s south entrance. She did not know how far the northeastern tip of the Park Fire was from the headquarters.
With the fire heading toward Lassen, Coon said the park will be closed over the weekend because the road through Lassen will be used to evacuate people out of the area.
“Our original plan was to let the visitors taper off and to cancel upcoming reservations,” Coon said. “Now we have changed that to a mandatory evacuation and letting everybody know that is time to go. We are still waiting for the official go ahead from the director of the National Park Service. But we are headed that way.”
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Coon said that Highway 89 will only be open to through traffic in the park because it will be used as "an evacuation route for communities to the south of the park.”
As the fire continued to churn north, the Tehama County Sheriff's Office issued an urgent evacuation warning Friday afternoon for residents in the Manton area, Sky Ranch and Paynes Creek along Highway 36.
Those warnings later became orders for Manton area residents to evacuate. Fire crews reported the fire making runs northward toward Highway 36 Friday afternoon east of Paynes Creek.
"The fire is moving north. Get to a safe location. A Red Cross shelter is being set up at the Los Molinos Vets Hall, 7980 Sherwood Blvd. and should be fully open by 5 p.m.," the sheriff's office said. The Park Fire had skirted east of Los Molinos as of Friday afternoon.
Earlier in the afternoon, the Shasta County Sheriff's Office had issued an evacuation warning for the Shasta County side of Manton. But those had been upgraded after 6 p.m. to orders. Crews were also being sent to put in fire line in the Mineral area in eastern Tehama County on Friday night.
A 42-year-old Chico man has been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection to the fire, which started in Upper Bidwell Park in Chico. The Butte County District Attorney's Office said the man slid a burning car down a canyon into the park, igniting the area and setting off the Park Fire.
The fire is making a trek similar to the massive Dixie Fire in 2021, when that fire burned about 70% of Lassen Park.
The Dixie Fire is the second-largest single fire in state history, burning 963,309 acres . The fire started in the Feather River Canyon southeast of Chico, near where the 2018 Camp Fire ignited.
The fire leveled the historic Gold-Rush era town of Greenville in Plumas County and threatened other mountain communities. It destroyed 1,329 structures in five northern counties, including Shasta and Tehama.
Coon said about 30 people will be evacuated from the park’s headquarters.
“We are also working on removing the historical artifacts that are in the park,” Coon said.
Read more: 'Just killed us:' Shasta County fire conditions mimic those on the Park Fire
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Reporter Damon Arthur welcomes story tips at 530-338-8834, by email at damon.arthur@redding.com and on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @damonarthur_RS .
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Park Fire updates: Shasta County impacted by the wildfire; 20 structures destroyed
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