California wildfire activity 2,816% higher in 2024 as Park Fire rages

The Park Fire tearing across Northern California is destroying homes and burning up land – and its destruction is only part of a far larger problem this year. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said this week that as of Tuesday, wildfire activity is 2,816% higher than last year for the same time period.

"As of July 30, 2024, wildfires have scorched a staggering 751,327 acres across our state," Cal Fire wrote on social media on Wednesday. "This year's wildfire activity is 2,816% higher than last year, 29 times the amount of acreage burned."

This year's fires are far above both last year's numbers and the five-year average, the department found. In 2023, there were 3,746 fires burning 25,763 acres through July 30, while the five-year average for the period is 4,416 fires and 140,996 acres.

As of Thursday afternoon, the state was battling 16 active wildfires, including the Park Fire that started just over a week ago after a man was seen pushing a burning car into a ravine.  Ronnie Stout, who is charged with reckless arson, appeared in court for the first time Monday.

So far, the Park Fire has spread across 393,013 acres and four counties , with Cal Fire saying in its latest update that Thursday marks "the first of several days where fire weather will become increasingly critical."

"Temperatures will rise from the upper 90s to the lower 100s. Daytime humidity will fall to upper teens today," Cal Fire said Thursday afternoon. "Winds will be drier out of the south, but speeds will be close to previous days. There is increased instability in the north where we will see columns and plumes of smoke."

Earlier, the department said the fire also "continues to burn in heavy, receptive fuel beds."

It's at just 18% containment and has grown so much that it is now the fifth-largest wildfire recorded in state history, trailing just behind the SCU Lightning Complex Fire in 2020 that burned 396,625 acres.

With warmer temperatures and thunderstorms creeping into the area this weekend, Cal Fire warned that storms could drift over the fire area and bring "abundant lightning, new starts, and winds of 30 to 45 mph" as temperatures hit triple digits.

More than 480 structures , including homes, have been destroyed – including Mike Wittenberg's. While kneeling in the ashes of what used to be his 4-year-old daughter's room, he cried as he told CBS News Bay Area while seeing the debris for the first time, "It's all gone."

"I'm pretty destroyed right now," he said of his family of five's home in Forest Ranch. "I held out hope, hoping that something would still be here. ... I didn't think it was actually going to take our house."

Of the active fires across the state, the causes of 14 remain under investigation. One – the Gold Complex Fire in Plumas County – was started by lightning, while another, the Park Fire , was started by arson.