Park Fire threatens historic Honey Run Covered Bridge rebuild, destroyed in Camp Fire

A beloved Butte County landmark that burned in the 2018 Camp Fire is once again in peril, this time from the Park Fire.

The massive blaze — whose smoke cloud is visible to motorists traveling on Interstate 5 between the Sacramento area to Red Bluff — threatens to destroy the remnants of the Honey Run Covered Bridge , a base structure built in the parking lot near the bridge and building materials stored on site, according to fire maps and reports from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

“We have hundreds of thousands of pounds of lumber and steel” on site, said Lindsay Steinberg, a marketing executive from Chico who serves as vice president of the Honey Run Covered Bridge Association.

Constructed in 1887, the covered bridge operated as an event and recreation venue for Butte County residents until it was destroyed in the Camp Fire in November 2018. The association raised the almost $5 million needed to rebuild the bridge in the wake of public outcry after it burned, Steinberg said.

Residents of Paradise and other parts of Butte County mourned the loss of the 238-foot bridge , which stood over the Butte Creek Canyon and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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Construction continued Friday on the bridge while the area was under evacuation warnings issued by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office.

Butte County residents are painfully aware fires can move quickly and change direction, and they’re “on edge” after six years of fires, Steinberg said.

But rebuild supporters are optimistic the bridge will stand again.

Camp Fire cemented a devastated community's resolve

The Honey Run Covered Bridge sits west of Paradise. The town is up on a ridge and the bridge sat in the valley below it.

“It was an extremely popular wedding venue,” said Steinberg, who had her own wedding on the bridge six weeks before the Camp Fire ignited on Nov. 8, 2018.

And 2024 isn't the first time philanthropists stepped forward to help the Honey Run Covered Bridge stay a Butte County landmark.

Seven years after the bridge's construction in 1887, Butte County resident George Miller covered the $259 repairs to the bridge floor (an amount worth more than $105,000 today) after flood waters damaged it, according to the bridge association.

The association built Bridge Park around the pedestrian bridge in 1972 and it earned historic preservation status in 1988, the year the bridge turned 101 years old .

Bridge Park around Honey Run Covered Bridge was ― and still is ― a popular local picnic spot, with waterfront access for swimmers.

Everyone living in the area seems to have a photo of themselves “on the bridge, under the bridge, swimming near the bridge,” Steinberg said.

Then, on Nov. 8, 2018, electrical transmission lines owned by PG&E sparked the Camp Fire in the tiny town of Pulga. Pushed by strong winds and dry conditions, the blaze exploded in size. It killed 85 people and destroyed most of the town of Paradise and surrounding communities before firefighters announced they contained it on November 25, Cal Fire reported .

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As of Friday, builders were completing the flooring of the bridge in the parking lot of the park in which it stood. When done, they’ll put it in place and build the rest of the bridge over it.

“We plan to have a big community party and open (the bridge) up to the public again” as soon as early 2025, Steinberg said.

The Honey Run Covered Bridge Association owned and cared for the bridge since the late 1960s. After the Camp Fire, the county didn’t have funds to restore it, so Butte County gifted the land under the bridge and the little park surrounding it to the association.

Restoration funds came from private donations, grants and PG&E settlement funds, Steinberg said, but she credits public support for the real impetus behind the bridge rebuild. “It’s an icon for the whole county, but Paradise, Chico and Magalia residents have been at the forefront.”

The Park Fire destroyed 70,000 acres per day since its start at 2:52 p.m. on Wednesday, July 24 in the city of Chico's Bidwell Park. It burned or threatens to burn landmarks, parks, forest and farmland in Butte and Tehama counties, according to Cal Fire.

Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook . Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.

This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Park Fire threatens historic Honey Run Covered Bridge rebuild, destroyed in Camp Fire