Fire in Northern California park spreads across 360,000 acres

Officials say the Northern California wildfire grew to more than 900,000 acres on Sunday amid less favorable weather conditions, fueling increased fire activity.

The fire near Chico, California, that started Wednesday has spread across four counties and was the largest fire burning in the United States on Sunday. The fire was caused by arson, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.

The fire was 12 percent contained as of Sunday afternoon, with more than 4,000 firefighters and other personnel involved in the effort, said Billy See, Cal Fire incident commander. At least 67 structures were destroyed or damaged, he said. More than 4,000 structures are threatened, Cal Fire said.

Changing weather conditions have allowed firefighters to make progress since Saturday, when the fire was only zero percent contained.

But by Sunday afternoon, conditions had deteriorated, posing another challenge for firefighters. “This afternoon, the smoke has cleared and the sun has come out. We’re starting to get some solar heat and we’re also getting more wind in the upper canyons,” See said at a news conference.

About 4,200 people were under evacuation orders in unincorporated areas of Butte County, Kory Honea, the county sheriff, said at a news conference Sunday. In all, more than 8,000 people were under evacuation orders in Butte and Tehama counties, said Jeremy Hollingshead, a spokesman for the Yuba City Fire Department. Lassen Volcanic National Park was closed and evacuated Saturday as the fire approached the western edge of the park.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, warned that another prolonged heat wave is expected in the fire area this week.

“This fire is likely to continue to burn for weeks, if not months,” Swain said.

Across the country, more than 26,000 firefighters and other emergency responders are battling active fires that have burned more than 2 million hectares.

In Oregon, firefighters battled a series of wildfires caused by extreme heat and lightning strikes, with five of the fires covering more than 100,000 acres each.