Fire crews across Northern California are racing to contain the blaze. so-called park fire which burned more than 550 square miles, darkening the sky with smoke and haze.
The sprawling blaze, which authorities say was sparked after a Man pushes burning car into ravine in Chico The quake, which killed more than 120 people and left behind, was only 12 percent contained Sunday. It destroyed at least 66 structures and threatened about 4,200 other homes.
Authorities initially believed 134 structures were destroyed, based on drone footage, but reduced that figure after crews assessed the damage in person.
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“Unfortunately, that number is likely to increase,” Jay Tracy, a spokesman for the Park Fire Department, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “Every day, that number is likely to increase. Our crews obviously don’t do damage inspections when there’s a fire going on in an area.”
Cooler temperatures and increased humidity could help crews fight the blaze, which is now the the largest active wildfire in the country and the seventh largest in California history.
The fire is contributing to poor air quality across much of the northwestern United States and western Canada.
The Park Fire has been compared to the 2018 Camp Fire that tore through the nearby community of Paradise, killing 85 people and burning 11,000 homes. Paradise and several other Butte County communities were under evacuation warnings Sunday.
However, Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Jeremy Pierce had some good news for the area, saying around noon that the southernmost front of the Park Fire, which is closest to Paradise, “looks really good,” and that crews were focused on mopping up the area over the next three days. He also said they don’t expect the fire to spread further into Chico, a city of about 100,000 just west of Paradise.
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First responders initially focused on saving lives and property endangered by the park fire, but their priority now is to deal with the blaze, Tracy said. Around 3,400 firefighters are battling the blaze.aided by numerous helicopters and air tankers, and Tracy said the reinforcements would give a much-needed rest to local firefighters, some of whom have been working around the clock since the blaze began Wednesday.
“This fire is surprising many people with its explosive growth,” he said. “It’s an unprecedented phenomenon.”
The park fire was started Wednesday. A Chico man accused of starting the fire was arrested Thursday and is scheduled to appear in court Monday.
The northern half of the fire remained a challenge Sunday, Pierce said, with crews using bulldozers and other equipment to build fire lines in rocky, difficult terrain and try to prevent the flames from spreading.
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The Park Fire was one of 100 wildfires burning across the United States Sunday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were sparked by weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the western United States endures scorching heat and extreme drought conditions.
Despite improving fire weather conditions in Northern California, conditions remain ripe for new blazes to start, with the National Weather Service warning Sunday of “red flag” conditions across large swaths of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, in addition to parts of California.
In Southern California, a wildfire in the Sequoia National Forest ravaged the community of Havilah after burning more than 49 square miles in less than three days. The town of about 250 residents had been under an evacuation order.
Fires were also burning in eastern Oregon and eastern Idaho, where officials were assessing damage from a group of blazes called the Gwen Fire, which was estimated to be 42 square miles (106 square kilometers) on Sunday.
