Park Fire containment holds as crews douse spot fires. Butte County evacuation warnings lifted
Spot fires in several areas overnight kept firefighters busy in the northeast portion of the Park Fire with the Northern California wildfire’s containment remaining at 34% for the fourth consecutive day.
The Park Fire, as of Thursday morning, had burned a total of 426,528 acres (666 square miles), according to Cal Fire. The wildfire’s containment has remained 34% since Monday morning.
The fire has burned more than 373,000 acres in Tehama County, an increase of about 6,000 acres since Wednesday morning. Flames burned nearly 53,000 acres in Butte County, where the suspected arson fire started more than two weeks ago.
On Thursday afternoon, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office lifted all evacuations warnings in the county. The last warnings that had been in place included the Butte Meadows community and areas above Forest Ranch bordering Highway 32, sheriff’s deputies said online.
The total acreage burned includes over 109,000 acres in Lassen National Forest. The wildfire has also affected areas in Plumas and Shasta counties.
The Park Fire was active overnight with spot fires in several areas, and significant fire activity was expected Thursday, according to a Cal Fire Thursday morning situation summary. Cal Fire said ground crews and aircraft continue to fight fire aggressively in the Mill Creek area.
Spot fires occur when floating embers drift in the air land on the unburned side of a fire containment line.
Jed Gaines, a Cal Fire deputy operations sections chief, told firefighters to expect more spot fires Thursday as they’ve had and extinguished in the past few days in the northeast portion of the Park Fire. He urged them to have a plan ready to respond to these spot fires and to be aggressive.
“We’re getting close to calling it a win, but we’re not there yet,” Gaines said during a Thursday operational briefing. “It’’s not time to celebrate. We’ve got several more days of hard work to hold what we got in there.”
Cal Fire officials said fire behavior on Thursday was expected to be similar to previous days with slope-aligned runs, and mid-range spotting. Low humidity is expected across the active fire area.
On Monday, a contracted dozer operator suffered burns to his hands and smoke inhalation after flames pushed past containment lines in the Mill Creek Drainage area, said Jim Evans, a Cal Fire spokesman. He said the dozer operator was taken to the Burn Unit at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where he was treated and released later that day.
No fatalities to civilians or firefighters have been reported in the Park Fire, according to its latest incident update.
Evans told The Sacramento Bee that minor injuries, such as sprained ankles or a cut finger, are not considered significant enough to list them in the Cal Fire incident updates. Evans said the dozer operator’s injuries were not considered significant enough that it required Cal Fire officials to list it in the incident update.
On Thursday, the Park Fire burning into its 16th day remained the fourth-largest wildfire in California recorded history. The August Complex Fire that burned 1.032 million acres in seven Northern California counties is the largest in state history; it killed one person and destroyed 935 structures.
The Park Fire has destroyed 636 structures and damaged 49 others in Butte and Tehama counties, according to Cal Fire’s revised numbers. The total includes infrastructure.
In Butte County, the fire destroyed 428 structures and damaged 47 others. Cal Fire said the fire destroyed 212 structures in Tehama County, damaging five others.
The Park Fire started in Butte County just east of Chico in a suspected act of arson.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico is accused of pushing a burning car into a gully in Upper Bidwell on July 24, igniting what would become the Park Fire before emerging from heavy vegetation along the hiking path and joining evacuees fleeing the area, prosecutors have said.
This story was originally published August 8, 2024 at 10:46 AM.
