California's largest active wildfire exploded in size Friday evening, growing rapidly amid bone-dry fuel and threatening thousands of homes as firefighters scrambled to contain the threat.
The intensity and dramatic spread of the Park Fire prompted fire officials to draw unexpected comparisons to the devastating campfire that raged out of control in nearby Paradise in 2018, which killed 85 people and burned 11,000 homes.
More than 130 structures have been destroyed by the fire so far, and thousands more are at risk as evacuations have been ordered in four counties: Butte, Plumas, Tehama and Shasta. It stood at 480 square miles (1,243 square kilometers) Friday night and was moving rapidly north and east after igniting Wednesday when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a ditch in Chico and then calmly mingled with others fleeing the scene.
“There's a large amount of fuel and it's going to continue at a rapid pace,” Cal Fire incident commander Billy See said at a briefing. He said the fire was burning up to 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) per hour on Friday afternoon.
Lassen Volcanic National Park officials evacuated crews from Mineral, where park headquarters are located, a community of about 120 people, as the fire moved north toward Highway 36 and east toward the park.
Communities across the western United States and elsewhere in Canada were under siege on Friday, as fast-moving blazes sparked by lightning sent people fleeing fire-strewn roads in rural Idaho to new fires that were burning wildfires in eastern Washington.
In eastern Oregon, a pilot was found dead aboard a small air tanker plane that crashed while battling one of several wildfires sweeping through several western states.
According to the National Interagency Fire Center, more than 110 active fires were burning in the US on Friday, covering an area of 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers). Some weather caused the region to endure record heat and bone-dry conditions as climate change increases the frequency of lightning strikes.
A wildfire in eastern Washington destroyed three homes and five buildings near the community of Tyler, which was evacuated Friday afternoon, said Ryan Rodrock, spokesman for the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Firefighters were able to contain the Columbia Basin Fire in Spokane County to about half a square mile (1.3 square kilometers), he said.
In Chico, California, Carly Parker is one of hundreds who fled her home as the park fire approached. Parker decided to leave the Forest Ranch home with his family when the street caught fire. She had previously been out of two houses from the fire and said she had little hope that her house would remain unscathed.
“I feel like I'm in danger because the police came to our house because we had signed up for an early evacuation warning, and they were running in their cars after telling us they needed to evacuate themselves and they wouldn't. Go back,” said Parker, a mother of five. .
Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested Thursday morning on charges related to the fire and was being held without bail at a hearing Monday, officials said. There was no response to an email to the district attorney asking if the suspect had legal representation or if anyone could comment on his behalf.
Firefighters were making progress on another complex burning in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, Forest Service spokesman Adrian Freeman said. Most of the 1,000 residents who were displaced by the fire in the Gold Complex due to lightning have returned home on Friday. Some crews were going out to help fight the park fire.
“As evidenced by the (park) fire in the west, some of these fires are burning at an extremely explosive and spreading rate that's hard to imagine,” said Tim Hike, Forest Service incident commander for the Gold Complex fire. 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Reno, said Friday. “Fire doesn't seem so bad until it happens. And then it might be too late.”
Sherry Alpers, a Forest Ranch evacuee, fled with her 12 small dogs and decided to stay in her car outside the Red Cross shelter in Chico after learning the animals wouldn't be allowed inside. She refused to travel to another shelter when she found out the dogs would be kept in cages, because her dogs always roam free in her house.
Alpers said she doesn't know if her house survived the fire, but she said as long as her dogs are safe, she doesn't care about material things.
“I'm worried, but not too much,” she said. “If it's gone, it's gone.”
Brian Bowles was also sitting in his car outside the shelter with his dog, Damon. He said he doesn't know if his mobile home is still standing.
Bowles said he only had $100 gift cards from the United Way, which handed them out to evacuees.
“Now the question is, do I get a motel room and get comfortable for one night? Or do I put gas in the car and sleep here?” he said. “Tough choice.”
In Oregon, Grant County search and rescue teams found a small single-engine air tanker Friday morning that went missing while battling the 219-square-mile (567 square kilometer) Falls Fire burning near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest. . Bureau of Land Management information officer Lisa Clark said the pilot died. No one else was on board when the Bureau-contracted plane went down in steep, wooded terrain.
The worst damage so far has been in Canada's Rockies Jasper National Park, where a fast-moving wildfire forced 25,000 people to flee and destroyed the park's namesake town, a World Heritage Site.
In Idaho, power outages sparked fast-moving wildfires and the evacuation of many communities. On Friday afternoon, there was a fire in an area of about 80 square kilometers.
Videos posted on social media show a man fleeing the campus of the University of Idaho in Moscow, about 43 kilometers southeast of Juliata, when he said he heard an explosion. The town of just over 600 residents was evacuated Thursday ahead of the roaring fire, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River and the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery Complex, which breeds salmon.
There is no estimate yet of how many buildings have burned in Idaho, nor is there information on damage to urban communities, officials said Friday morning.
Oregon still has the largest active fire in the United States, the Durkee Fire, which combined with the Cow Fire burned about 1,630 square kilometers. This remains unpredictable and was only 20 percent contained on Friday, according to government website InciWeb.
More than 15,000 square kilometers have burned in the U.S. this year, and more than 3,700 fires have burned more than 22,800 square kilometers in Canada, according to the National Interagency Fire Center's National Wildland Fire Situation Report. Released on Wednesday.
