California’s Park Fire is burning an area the size of Los Angeles

FOREST RANCH, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of firefighters are struggling Wildfires in Northern California Hours after the fire ravaged an area the size of Los Angeles, it got some help from the weather Saturday. The blaze was one of several in the western United States and Canada that were fanned by wind and heat.

Cooler temperatures and increased humidity on Saturday will help slow California’s largest wildfires so far this year. The intensity and dramatic spread of the blaze have led firefighters to draw unwelcome comparisons. Terrible campfire. The fire raged out of control in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and destroying 11,000 homes.

The sky was once again close to the danger zone. The entire city was under an evacuation warning Saturday, one of several communities in Butte County. Evacuation orders were also issued in Plumas, Tehama and Shasta Counties. An evacuation warning asks people to prepare to evacuate and wait for instructions. An evacuation order means immediate evacuation.

Temperatures are expected to be below average through the middle of next week, but “that doesn’t mean the current fires are going to go away,” said Mark Senard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

By Saturday, the fire had burned 540 square miles (1,409 square kilometers). Los Angeles covers an area of ​​about 503 square miles (1,320 square kilometers). The fire was moving northeast after starting Wednesday when a man drove his burning car into a ravine in Chico and then quietly mingled with others, officials said.

Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested Thursday morning in connection with the fire and was being held without bail pending a Monday arraignment, authorities said. Emails sent to the county collector asking if the suspect had legal representation or could comment on his behalf went unanswered.

Cal Fire Incident Chief Billy Seay said at a briefing Saturday that the fire has moved 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) per hour since it began. But there was cautious optimism as weather conditions slowed the fire’s progress in some areas and allowed firefighters to plan and deploy additional personnel. Nearly 2,500 firefighters are battling the blaze, with the help of 16 helicopters and a large number of firefighting aircraft.

“We have almost three times the staff today than we had yesterday morning,” he said. “We still don’t have enough.”

He advised his team to be aggressive, stay safe and take advantage of the better conditions they will experience in the coming days.

Rapidly spreading flames also caused sieges in other communities in the American West and Canada on Saturday.

The National Interagency Fire Center reported more than 110 active fires across the United States on Friday, covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers). Some were weather-related Climate change is increasing The lightning strikes can withstand record heat and bone-dry conditions.

In Chico, California, Carly Parker was one of hundreds who fled their homes as the Park Fire approached. Parker decided to leave his forest farm with his family when the fire began burning across the street. He had previously been evacuated from two homes because of the fire and said he had no hope that his home would remain intact.

“I think I was in danger because the police came to our house because we had signed up for early evacuation warnings and they ran to their vehicle and told us to leave ourselves and they didn’t want to leave. Come back,” said Parker, a mother of five.

Amanda Brown, who lives in the same community where Stout was arrested, said she was shocked that someone would set a fire in an area where memories of the Paradise disaster are still fresh.

“It’s unbelievably cruel that someone could intentionally do this to our community again. I don’t understand it,” said Brown, 61, who was about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the fire but was not ordered to evacuate.

Elsewhere, firefighters are making progress on another complex of fires in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada border, Forest Service spokeswoman Adrian Freeman said. Traffic was backed up for miles near the border on a stretch of the main road connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas as firefighters continued to battle a blaze Saturday, a day after a truck carrying lithium-ion batteries crashed and flipped onto its side.

The worst damage so far has occurred in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies, where 25,000 people have been forced to evacuate due to rapidly spreading wildfires. The city after which the park is named has been destroyeda World Heritage Site. Officials there said the cold and wet weather helped crews get the wildfire under control. This comes after Parks Canada said 358 of the 1,113 structures in the town of Jasper were destroyed.

In eastern Washington state, crews have stopped the progress of a fire near the Tyler community that destroyed three homes and five buildings Friday night, the Washington Department of Natural Resources reported Saturday. The fire in the southern Columbia Basin has burned trees and grass, and crews continue to work on containment lines around the fire perimeter.

Two fires in eastern Oregon, including the Turkey and Cow Valley blazes, have burned about 660 square miles (1,709 square kilometers). Oregon Gov. Tina Codec offered condolences to the family of the pilot of a single-engine tanker that flew into the forest late Friday night while battling another fire near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest.

In Idaho, lightning strikes sparked fast-moving wildfires and prompted the evacuation of many communities. The fire was burning across an area of ​​about 31 square miles (80 square kilometers) Friday afternoon. Juliata, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of the University of Idaho Moscow campus, was evacuated along with many other communities Thursday just before the fire.

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Rodriguez reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Rebecca Boone, John Antsak, Rio Yamad, David Sharp, Holly Ramer, Sarah Brumfield, Claire Rush, Terry See, Scott Sonner, Martha Bellisle and Amy Hanson contributed to this report.