Park Fire updates: Containment on one of California's biggest is at 38%

Firefighters continued to battle the massive Park Fire on Monday, as the fire grew minimally over the weekend in Butte and Tehama counties.

The blaze grew 71 acres between Sunday and Monday morning, reaching 429,259 acres in size. Containment was still at 38% on Monday, according to an update on the fire issued by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The fire continues to threatens the Mill Creek area and the town of Mineral in Tehama County, near the edge of Lassen Volcanic National Park, according to Cal Fire's map. The map also shows the fire entering parts of the 2021 Dixie Fire burn scar.

The Park Fire remains California's fourth largest fire in state history.

As of Saturday, the cost to suppress the fire had risen to $165.4 million, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

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Lines around the fire held except for a few spot fires that popped up overnight. The fire continues to burn in pockets of brush and threatens to ignite dead vegetation and debris built up on the forest floor. Those flareups make it possible for the fire to jump containment lines, so crews are patrolling them, according to a Cal Fire update on Sunday morning.

Cal Fire crews will also spend Sunday building containment lines, securing current lines and mopping up hot spots in the burn area, according to the update.

Firefighters hope a slight cooling trend in the forecast, starting this week, will raise moisture levels in the air and help calm the fire. That slight drop in temperature, with daily highs in the 90s, could also help reduce risk of spot fires starting.

More than 5,700 people are assigned to work the fire.

"Unified partners have converged firefighters to completely suppress the #ParkFire," Cal Fire said in its report.

As of 7 a.m. Sunday, the fire burned 52,937 acres Butte County, and 376,251 acres in Tehama County including 113,694 acres of Lassen National Forest lands, according to Cal Fire. It destroyed 641 homes, businesses and other structures in the two counties, and damaged another 52 structures.

North State highways, roads still closed due to the Park Fire

Several North State highways and streets remained closed Sunday morning due to Park Fire activity, according to Cal Fire.

• Highway 89 through Lassen National Park is closed to everyone except evacuating residents and emergency vehicles.
• In Butte County , Highway 32 is closed at Humboldt Road.
• In Tehama County , Highway 36 at Little Giant Mill Road, Plum Creek Road and Hogsback Road; and also at St. Bernard Lodge and County Road, Block E remained closed.

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 updates: Containment on one of California's biggest is at 38%