Cooler temperatures bring relief as Park fire explodes in California

Cooler temperatures brought some relief to the thousands of firefighters battling the Park fire in northern California after it exploded in size, becoming the largest in the state and prompting the governor to make an emergency declaration for three counties.

The intensity and dramatic spread of the wildfire led officials to make unwelcome comparisons to the disastrous Camp fire, which burned out of control in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and destroying 11,000 homes.

Paradise again was near the danger zone. The entire town was under an evacuation warning, one affecting several communities in Butte county. Evacuation orders were also issued in Plumas, Tehama and Shasta counties. An evacuation warning calls for people to prepare to evacuate and await instructions, while an evacuation order means to leave immediately.

Newsom’s emergency declaration for the counties of Plumas, Butte and Tehama came as thousands of residents were fleeing their homes. The California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire) reported 134 buildings had been destroyed as of Saturday afternoon and thousands were still under threat, however no deaths have been reported.

“We are using every available tool to protect lives and property as our fire and emergency response teams work around the clock to combat these challenging fires,” Newsom said in a statement .

The Park fire, currently the largest of the year in California, was ravaging more than 350,000 acres (124,238 hectares) – an area nearly the size of Los Angeles – across Butte and Tehama counties as of early Saturday. Dry conditions had spurred the fire to increase at an alarmingly rapid pace overnight, according to Cal Fire .

However, Jeremy Pierce, a Cal Fire operations section chief, said firefighters were taking advantage of the cooler weather: “We’re having great success today. Our crews are strong and going out there and getting this while the weather is in our favor.”

Temperatures are expected to be cooler than average through the middle of next week, but “that doesn’t mean that fires that are existing will go away”, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Billy See, an incident commander with Cal Fire, said at a briefing that every hour since its inception, the blaze had been advancing 8 sq miles (21 sq kms). But there was cautious optimism as weather conditions slowed the fire in some areas, and firefighters were able to plan and deploy additional personnel. Nearly 2,500 firefighters were battling the blaze, aided by 16 helicopters and numerous air tankers.

While lightning caused some of California’s ongoing wildfires, arson sparked the Park blaze, authorities said.

Investigators allege that the fire started when a man identified as Ronnie Dean Stout was seen pushing a burning car into a ravine near Chico on Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Bee .

Police said they arrested him Thursday after he fled the scene with others as the fire spread.

Stout remained in the Butte county jail on Saturday and was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.

Amanda Brown, who lives in the community where Stout was arrested, said she was stunned that someone would set a fire in a region where memories of Paradise are still fresh.

“That anyone could deliberately put our community through that again is incredibly cruel. I don’t understand it,” said Brown, 61, who lives about a mile (1.6 kms) from the fire but had not been ordered to evacuate.

The evolving threat forced many residents to flee their homes, including Carli Parker.

Parker told the Associated Press that she decided to leave her home in Forest Ranch with her family when the fire began burning across the street. “I think I felt like I was in danger because the police had come to our house because we had signed up for early evacuation warnings, and they were running to their vehicle after telling us that we need to self-evacuate, and they wouldn’t come back,” Parker, a mother of five, said.

She said she had little hope that her home would remain unscathed by the fire.

Another Forest Ranch evacuee, Sherry Alpers, said that she had chosen to stay in her car outside a Red Cross shelter in Chico with her 12 small dogs when she learned animals were not allowed inside.

She added that she doesn’t know whether her home was still standing, but that as long as her dogs were safe, she didn’t care about the material things. “I’m kind of worried, but not that much,” she said. “If it’s gone, it’s gone.”

Smoke from the Park fire had begun to have an effect on air quality by early Saturday. The Tehama county air pollution control district said conditions would range from “moderate” to “very unhealthy” in the morning and evening hours as smoke drifted over the region.

Meanwhile, the Gold Complex fires, caused by lightning, were burning across 3,000 acres in the Plumas national forest. Fire crews had made progress battling that cluster of fires, 50 miles (80km) north-west of Reno.

In fact, most of the 1,000 residents who had evacuated the area were returning to their homes Friday, according to the Associated Press.

A total of more than 110 fires covering 2,800 sq miles (7,250 sq kms) were burning in the US on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center .

Oregon’s Durkee fire , which started on 17 July, has been the largest active fire in the US – it was about 20% contained on Friday, according to officials.

Heatwaves and historic drought stemming from climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, have made wildfires in the US west more challenging to fight.

Associated Press contributed to this report