Officials charge man for starting California wildfire that has burned more than 71,000 acres

(CHICO, Calif.) — A Northern California wildland fire that exploded overnight into the state’s largest blaze this wildfire season, destroying structures and prompting thousands of evacuations, was allegedly started by a man who pushed a burning car into a gully, authorities said Thursday.

The 48-year-old arson suspect charged with starting the Park Fire in Butte County near the city of Chico was arrested Thursday morning and jailed without bail, said Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. The suspect’s name was not immediately released.

The suspect was allegedly spotted just before 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday, pushing a car that was on fire down a gully called “Alligator Hole” in Bidwell Park, near Chico, Ramsey said.

“The car went down an embankment approximately 60 feet and burned completely, spreading flames that caused the Park Fire,” Ramsey said in a statement.

A man who was later identified as the suspect was seen calmly leaving the area by blending in with other park visitors fleeing the rapidly evolving fire, Ramsey said.

The suspect is scheduled to be arraigned next week, Ramsey said.

The Park Fire in Butte County, California, and the Durkee Fire in Oregon, the largest fire burning in the nation, continued filling West Coast skies Thursday with smoke as gusty winds and treacherous terrain were dealing challenges to firefighters battling both blazes, officials said.

Park Fire becomes largest 2024 wildfire in the state

The Park Fire started around 3 p.m. Wednesday northeast of the city of Chico in Bidwell Park and by Thursday afternoon had burned 71,489 acres, destroyed an undetermined number of structures and caused the Butte County Sheriff’s Department to order evacuations for rural foothill communities in the area, including nearly the entire town of Cohasset, which has a population of about 400.

More than 1,100 firefighters were fighting the flames Thursday morning, using helicopters and cutting fire lines with bulldozers in a desperate attempt to prevent the fire from spreading to homes in the densely populated areas of north Chico, authorities said.

The Park Fire was just 3% contained Thursday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

“The fire is well established. Fire personnel are currently focusing on evacuations and structure defense while concurrently building direct containment lines utilizing bulldozers, fire crews and fire engines,” Cal Fire said in an updated statement Thursday morning. “More resources have been ordered and are inbound from various areas throughout Northern California.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

At least 3,800 people were under evacuation orders in Butte and Tehama counties, officials said.

The Park Fire rapidly grew into the state’s largest conflagration this wildfire season, surpassing the Lake Fire near Santa Barbara in Southern California that started on July 5. As of Thursday morning, the Lake Fire had burned 38,664 and was 90% contained, according to Cal Fire. The blaze destroyed four structures and left at least six firefighters injured, Cal Fire reported.

The Butte County blaze was one of 64 new fires that erupted in California Wednesday, according to Cal Fire.

Rick Carhart, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, told ABC News Thursday that hot temperatures and steep, rugged terrain in the burning area are making things difficult for firefighters.

Carhart — who described the fire activity as “dynamic” — said the temperature in the area this week has been 100 to 110 degrees.

Officials said that in the first 12 hours of the fire, flames were burning 4,000 acres per hour.

“It’s very, very hot. It’s bone dry and pretty much every spark that hits the ground is going to start a fire,” Carhart said.

He said the area where the fire is most active hasn’t burned in 20 years, providing an abundance of dry vegetation that is feeding the blaze.

Cal Fire officials said the number of acres burned so far in this wildfire season is 15 times more than at this time in 2023. There have been nearly 800 more fires this year compared to last, including 54 that resulted in arson arrests, according to Cal Fire, in

Durkee fire is largest in the nation

In Oregon, the Durkee Fire in Baker County, which was sparked by a lightning strike on July 17, had grown to nearly 270,000 acres, or about 400 square miles, as of Thursday morning. The fire burning near the Idaho border was 0% contained and had spread into neighboring Malheur County, according to the Oregon Fire Marshal’s Office.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek announced on Wednesday that she has invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act to increase resources to battle the Durkee Fire and the Battle Mountain Complex Fire, which consists of three active fires that have burned a total of about 64,000 in the same area of Umatilla County in Eastern Oregon.

Kotek said she has also deployed the National Guard to the Durkee and Battle Mountain fires.

Kotek said in a statement that resources necessary for fighting the fires are beyond local capabilities.

“The wildfires in Eastern Oregon have scaled up quickly,” Kotek said. “We are facing strong erratic winds over the region that could impact all fires. Rain is not getting through. Some communities do not have power. The situation is dynamic, and the teams on the ground are taking it day by day. I have deployed resources from the National Guard that are currently serving eastern and southwestern Oregon. I know these communities are supporting one another, doing their part to heed the guidance from officials and showing tremendous gratitude for our firefighters.”

Kotek said the Durkee fire has merged with another large fire in the area, the Cow Valley Fire, creating one monster-size blaze.

The Baker County Sheriff’s Office said evacuation orders for residents living in the fire zone, including all 500 residents of the town of Huntington.

During a community briefing Wednesday night, fire officials said the Durkee fire was burning so hot it had created its own weather system.

Jonathan Chriest, a National Weather Service meteorologist assigned to the Durkee fire, said at a briefing that wind gusts fanning the fire were expected to reach 75 mph Wednesday night.

Temperatures in the area have been in the high 90s to triple-digits. Chriest said a cold front was moving into the area of the Durkee Fire that could lower temperatures through the weekend but could bring northwest winds of 30 to 45 mph and flash flooding.

“That fire has just not cooperated with us in terms of the weather. I don’t like making excuses and I don’t like fires outpacing me, so that’s a hard thing to admit,” Tyson Albrecht of the U.S. Forest Service, the incident commander on the Durkee Fire for Northwest Team 6, said at the briefing. “This fire and the weather that we’ve been experiencing has been really challenging. It will continue to challenge us, but we will continue to keep swinging away out there to minimize those impacts.”

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