Park Fire in Northern California grows to sixth largest in state history

The Park Fire in Northern California is now the sixth largest wildfire in California history, having scorched more than 368,000 acres across four counties, according to Cal Fire.

The fire, which started last Wednesday in Butte County, had spread to three other counties -- Plumas, Shatsa and Tehama -- as of Monday morning, Cal Fire said.

Authorities arrested a man who they say pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. The man, identified as Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico, was scheduled to face arson charges in court Monday.

Firefighters increased containment on the Park Fire to 12% on Saturday, aided by cooler temperatures and more humidity, officials said.

Although cooler-than-average temperatures are expected through the middle of this week, that doesn’t mean existing fires will disappear, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

The community of Paradise and several other Butte County communities were under an evacuation warning Sunday. Yet the fire's southernmost front, which is closest to Paradise, was "looking really good," Cal Fire operations section chief Jeremy Pierce said.

Officials did not expect the flames to move farther into Chico, a city of about 100,000 people just west of Paradise, and over the next three days crews plan to extinguish hot spots and remove hazards, Pierce said.

The focus on saving lives and endangered property has shifted to confronting the blaze head-on, Jay Tracy, a Park Fire headquarters spokesperson, told The Associated Press by phone Sunday.

Nearly 4,000 firefighters are battling the fire, aided by numerous helicopters and air tankers. Reinforcements are expected to give much-needed rest to local firefighters, some of whom have been working nonstop since Wednesday, Tracy said.

"This fire is surprising a lot of people with its explosive growth," he said. "It is kind of unparalleled."

The Park Fire has drawn comparisons to the 2018 Camp Fire that tore through Paradise, killing 85 people and torching 11,000 homes.

Cohasset exhibited remnants of the devastation Sunday. Mailboxes and vehicles were covered with pink fire retardant dropped by aircraft. The husks of a washer and dryer set were surrounded by burned debris and a charred motorcycle was propped upright, balancing on rims after its tires apparently melted away.
Another part of Cohasset was relatively unscathed, said Garrett Sjolund, the Butte County fire chief.

"We have an unburned island in that community that we are continuing to patrol and ensure that there are no hot spots in it," Sjolund said.

Managing evacuation orders in the area has been complex. Authorities were about to downgrade an order to an evacuation warning for Forest Ranch when they learned a number of hot spots were reported nearby, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said.

"That illustrates how rapidly things can change," Honea said. "We were all set to be able to reduce that order to get people back in there."

The Park Fire has destroyed at least 66 structures and damaged five others, Tracy said. Authorities initially believed 134 structures were lost, based on drone footage, but lowered the number after assessing the damage in-person, while acknowledging the figure could increase.

"Each day that number has potential to grow. Our teams obviously don’t do damage inspections when there is active fire in an area," Tracy said.

Jerry White, 72, left his Magalia home of 50 years when authorities issued an evacuation warning. Years earlier White sustained third-degree burns and the memory of that pain made him take the warning seriously.

"I don't want to catch fire again. It's one of the worst pains you can endure," White said. "I wanted to get out of dodge. Burns are bad."