Park fire in California grows dramatically, becoming largest active blaze in U.S.

The Park fire in Northern California nearly doubled in size Friday night, becoming the largest active blaze in the country, as firefighters raced to contain scores of blazes across the West.

Federal officials say active fires have burned more than 2 million acres. With smoke darkening the skies, authorities in California and Oregon refined evacuation zones and urged people to be prepared to flee with little notice. This past week, thousands of people have been told to evacuate, and the smoke has prompted air quality alerts across the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West.

The sprawling fire in California has expanded rapidly to more than 348,000 acres in Butte, Tehama and Shasta counties, near Chico, fire officials said. They added that the fire was expanding by as much as 5,000 acres per hour. The blaze, which is also among the largest in the state’s history, was still 0% contained Saturday morning, but Cal Fire expects the cooler temperatures and higher humidity forecast for the day will aid firefighters. The number of firefighters and other personnel working to contain the Park fire nearly tripled to about 2,500 since Friday, officials said.

“This is the best day as far as weather conditions that we’re going to experience this week,” Scott Weese, a Cal Fire official, said at a briefing with firefighters Saturday.

But officials predicted the fire would continue to grow, and they did not have an estimate for when it may start to be contained.

The wildfire’s growth prompted a new wave of evacuation orders and warnings, with about 8,700 people under such orders Saturday, according to Cal Fire. In Paradise, which was almost completely destroyed by the Camp fire in 2018, officials issued an evacuation warning for the entire town Friday night. Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday declared a state of emergency for Butte and Tehama counties, in addition to Plumas County, where the Gold Complex fire had burned nearly 3,000 acres.

Oregon was also contending with fires. The Durkee fire, which has unleashed havoc in a sparsely populated region close to the Idaho border since a lightning strike July 17, was covering at least 288,000 acres. To the southwest, in the Malheur National Forest, the Falls fire has claimed more than 140,000 acres. And the Lone Rock fire has raced across more than 136,000 acres since it started July 13 about 10 miles from Condon, Oregon.

“The wildfires in eastern Oregon have scaled up quickly,” Gov. Tina Kotek said this week. “We are facing strong erratic winds over the region that could impact all fires. Rain is not getting through. Some communities do not have power. The situation is dynamic, and the teams on the ground are taking it day by day.”

In Oregon, authorities said Friday that the pilot of a firefighting plane had been found dead after officials lost contact with the aircraft, a single-engine, single-seat tanker, on Thursday evening. The plane had been responding to a blaze blamed on a lightning strike near the Falls fire.

Lisa Clark, a spokesperson for the Malheur National Forest and the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that contracted the plane, said officials were investigating the cause of the crash. Authorities did not immediately release the pilot’s name.

About 18,500 people in Oregon were covered by fire evacuations Saturday, state officials said.

Still, authorities said they were encouraged in some areas. Officials reported Friday that the Lone Rock fire’s risks to structures had “reduced greatly,” and evacuations near some other blazes eased.

Enormous stretches of California, Arizona, Utah and Idaho – and encompassing nearly 1 million people – were covered by “red flag” warnings Saturday morning, which the National Weather Service issues when conditions such as strong winds and low humidity leave areas more vulnerable than usual to fires.

Although it is still somewhat early in fire season, and despite the relatively small size of many fires, this year is shaping up to be a damaging one. On Saturday, the National Interagency Fire Center said there had been 27,427 fires this year, affecting about 3.7 million acres. By the same time last year, there had been more fires, but one-fourth the number of acres had been affected. The federal government spent more than $3.1 billion on firefighting last year.

Most wildfires are classified as caused by humans, but the Park fire this past week was notable for the circumstances the authorities described: A man pushed a burning vehicle into a gully in Butte County, causing it to tumble about 60 feet down an embankment. A suspect was arrested, held without bail and scheduled for arraignment this next week.

Authorities have not publicly suggested a motive but said the suspect – Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico – had a criminal history, including a conviction for robbery with great bodily injury.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.