A wildfire that tripled in size in a single day to become California’s largest of the year as other fires raged across the Pacific Northwest was sparked by a burning car, authorities said. They arrested a man seen pushing the burning car into a ravine.
The man was seen pushing the car into Bidwell Park in Butte County in Northern California, and it burned completely, sending flames spreading that sparked the Park Fire, District Attorney Mike Ramsey said in a news release. The blaze had burned more than 257 square miles (666 square kilometers) near Chico, a city of about 100,000, as of Friday morning.
The man calmly left the area, in one of the nation’s largest city parks, mingling with other people and fleeing the “rapidly evolving fire,” officials said. The 42-year-old Chico man was arrested Thursday morning and is being held without bail until a Monday arraignment, officials said.
Evacuations were ordered in Butte and Tehama counties, with the fire only 3% contained as of Friday morning. About 4,000 residents in unincorporated areas of Butte County and 400 residents in Chico were ordered to evacuate, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said at a news conference late Thursday.
Butte County Fire Chief Garrett Sjolund said an unknown number of buildings were destroyed and two people suffered minor injuries.
“The fire quickly began to outpace our resources due to the dry fuels, hot weather, low humidity and wind,” Sjolund said.
Also in California, near the Nevada border, about 1,000 people remained displaced Thursday after evacuations were ordered Monday night when lightning sparked the Gold Complex fires. The blazes have burned more than 4 square miles (10 square kilometers) of brush and timber in the Plumas National Forest, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Reno, Forest Service spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman said.
There were no reports of structural damage, deaths or serious injuries, but the fires were out of control Thursday due to high winds that also battered emergency services at the Park Fire, authorities said.
A fire in Southern California was much smaller but spread quickly and threatened homes. Evacuation orders were in effect Wednesday night in northern San Diego County. The Grove Fire was 10% contained Thursday afternoon. Some residents were under evacuation orders.
While evacuations continued in California, some Oregon residents were allowed to return home after a thunderstorm brought welcome rain but also potentially dangerous lightning strikes. the largest active fire in the United States.
Evacuation orders for the eastern Oregon town of Huntington, population 500, were lifted after a thunderstorm Wednesday night brought light rain and cooler temperatures to the nearly 600-square-mile (1,630 square km) area burned by the Durkee Fire, the nation’s largest, and another nearby blaze.
Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash called the rain a “godsend” and Oregon’s fire marshal said firefighters were ready to “seize the opportunity” of better conditions to push back the fire on the Oregon-Idaho border, which remained unpredictable and was only 20% contained, according to the government website InciWeb.
Lightning strikes sparked 15 new fires in Idaho overnight, the U.S. Forest Service told KBOI-TV in Boise. Several fires had been extinguished by Thursday afternoon.
More than two dozen new fires started in Montana on Wednesday and Thursday morning. And a fast-moving wildfire raged this week in Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies visit the park’s namesake city, which forced thousands to flee and caused significant damage to the World Heritage Site. This fire, like the one in the western United States, led to a number of air quality warnings or warnings as the air filled with smoke and haze.
In total, more than 1,500 square miles (more than 4,000 square kilometers) have burned in the Pacific Northwest this summer. In Oregon alone, more than 30 large fires are burning, almost all of them in the central or eastern part of the state.
Climate change is increasing the frequency of forest fires caused by lightning in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada as the region endures record-breaking heat, with many days of temperatures above 30 degrees and bone-dry conditions. Idaho Power has issued its first preventive blackout, cutting electricity to thousands of customers to prevent new fires and other grid disruptions caused by downed wires in the high winds, the utility said.
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Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield, Claire Rush, Scott Sonner, Martha Bellisle and Amy Hanson contributed to this report.