FOREST RANCH, Calif. — Over the weekend, improving weather helped firefighters make progress in the battle against wildfires that have covered massive areas and left a trail of damage in the western United States. However, further evacuations and resources have been necessary as thousands of personnel tackle the flames.
The so-called Park Fire, the largest wildfire in California this year, was one of more than 100 blazes burning in the U.S. on Sunday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were sparked by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the western U.S. endures blistering heat and bone-dry conditions.
As of Monday, July 29, the Park Fire had scorched an area greater than the city of Los Angeles, darkening the sky with smoke and engaging thousands of firefighters. The blaze spanned more than 562 square miles of inland Northern California.
Officials said in an update early Monday that winds and temperatures were expected to increase slightly amid a drop in humidity.
Air quality alerts were issued for Monday in the northwestern U.S. and western Canada.
The Park Fire started Wednesday when authorities say a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. A man accused of setting the fire was arrested Thursday and is due in court Monday.
Firefighters increased containment to 12% on Saturday, aided by cooler temperatures and more humidity, officials said.
Although cooler-than-average temperatures are expected through the middle of this week, that doesn’t mean existing fires will disappear, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
The National Weather Service issued “red flag” warnings Monday for large swaths of Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, as well as parts of California. The warnings indicated that dry fuels and stronger winds were increasing the fire danger.
Fires burned across eastern Oregon and eastern Idaho, where officials were assessing damage from the Gwen Fire, which was estimated at 43 square miles as of Sunday.
In California, Paradise and several other Butte County communities were under an evacuation warning Sunday. Yet the fire’s southernmost front, which is closest to Paradise, was “looking really good,” Cal Fire operations section chief Jeremy Pierce said around midday.
Officials did not expect it to move farther into Chico, a city of about 100,000 people just west of Paradise. Over the next three days, crews plan to extinguish hot spots and remove hazards, Pierce said.
The focus on saving lives and endangered property has shifted to confronting the blaze head-on, Jay Tracy, a Park Fire headquarters spokesperson, told The Associated Press by phone Sunday.
Nearly 4,000 firefighters are battling the fire, aided by numerous helicopters and air tankers. Tracy said reinforcements are expected to give much-needed rest to local firefighters, some of whom have been working nonstop since Wednesday.
“This fire is surprising a lot of people with its explosive growth. It is kind of unparalleled,” said Tracy.
The Park Fire has drawn comparisons to the 2018 Camp Fire that tore through Paradise, killing 85 people and torching 11,000 homes.
Cohasset exhibited remnants of the devastation Sunday. Mailboxes and vehicles were covered with pink fire retardant dropped by aircraft. The husks of a washer and dryer set were surrounded by burned debris, and a charred motorcycle was propped upright, balancing on rims after its tires apparently melted away.
Another part of Cohasset was relatively unscathed, said Garrett Sjolund, the Butte County fire chief.
“We have an unburned island in that community that we are continuing to patrol and ensure that there are no hot spots in it,” Sjolund said.
Managing evacuation orders in the area has been complex. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said authorities were about to downgrade an order to an evacuation warning for Forest Ranch when they learned a number of hot spots were reported nearby.
“That illustrates how rapidly things can change,” Honea said. “We were all set to be able to reduce that order to get people back in there.”
In Southern California, about 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate because of a fire sweeping through the Sequoia National Forest. The wind-driven blaze was fed by dry, dead plants and moving fast, eating up more than 60 square miles (155 square kilometers) in four days, Andrew Freeborn of the Kern County Fire Department said.
No fatalities have been reported in the Park and Borel fires, but some people were increasing the danger for everyone by disregarding evacuation orders, Freeborn said.
“When people are trying to ignore the orders and later call for rescue, that takes firefighters away from the task of fighting the fires,” he said. “This fire is moving at a pace and with such intensity that individuals should not be thinking they can wait until the last minute. They need to get out of the way.”
Freeborn said the historic mining town of Havilah and several other communities were “heavily impacted” by the fires, but it was too soon to count the burned homes.
Tracy said the Park Fire has destroyed at least 66 structures and damaged five others. Authorities initially believed 134 structures were lost based on drone footage but lowered the number after assessing the damage in person while acknowledging the figure could increase.
“Each day that number has potential to grow. Our teams obviously don’t do damage inspections when there is active fire in an area,” Tracy said.
Jerry White, 72, left his Magalia home of 50 years when authorities issued an evacuation warning. Years earlier, White sustained third-degree burns, and the memory of that pain made him take the warning seriously.
“I don’t want to catch fire again. It’s one of the worst pains you can endure,” White said. “I wanted to get out of dodge. Burns are bad.”
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