California's largest active wildfire exploded Friday night, growing rapidly amid dry fuel and threatening thousands of homes as firefighters scrambled to contain the danger.
The intensity and dramatic spread of the fire in the park led firefighters to unwelcome comparisons to the monster campfire that raged in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and burning 11,000 homes.
This fire has so far destroyed more than 130 buildings and thousands more are at risk as evacuations have been ordered in four counties: Butte, Plumas, Tehama and Shasta. It was 480 square miles (1,243 square kilometers) by Friday night and was moving rapidly north and east after Wednesday's blaze, when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a ravine in Chico and then calmly joined others who were leaving the scene they fled.
“There's a huge amount of fuel out there and it's going to continue at this rapid rate,” Cal Fire Incident Commander Billy See said at the briefing. He said the fire was moving at up to 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) per hour on Friday afternoon.
Lassen Volcanic National Park officials evacuated employees from Mineral, a community of about 120 people that is home to park headquarters, as the fire moved north toward Highway 36 and east toward the park.
Communities elsewhere in the western U.S. and Canada were under siege Friday, from a fast-moving fire sparked by lightning that sent people fleeing along fire-lined roads in rural Idaho to a new blaze prompting evacuations in eastern Washington.
The pilot of a small air tanker that crashed while fighting one of the many wildfires spreading across several western states has been found dead in eastern Oregon.
More than 110 active fires covering 2,800 square miles (7,250 square kilometers) were burning in the US on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were caused by the weather, and climate change has increased the frequency of lightning strikes as the region endures record heat and bone-chilling drought.
A wildfire in eastern Washington destroyed three homes and five outbuildings near the community of Tyler, which was evacuated Friday afternoon, said Ryan Rodruck, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Firefighters have contained the Columbia Basin fire in Spokane County to about half a square mile (1.3 km square), he said.
In Chico, California, Carli Parker is one of hundreds of people who fled their homes as a park fire approached. Parker decided to leave her Forest Ranch residence with her family when the fire started across the street. She had previously been displaced from two homes by the fire and said she had little hope her residence would remain unscathed.
“I think I felt like I was in danger because the police came to our house because we applied for an early warning to evacuate and they were running to their vehicle after telling us we needed to evacuate ourselves and they would they didn't do that. come back,” said Parker, a mother of five.
Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, of Chico, was arrested early Thursday in connection with the fire and is being held without bail pending an arraignment Monday, officials said. There was no response to an email to the district attorney asking if the suspect has an attorney or someone who could speak on his behalf.
Firefighters were working on another complex of fires burning in the Plumas National Forest near the California-Nevada line, Forest Service spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman said. Most of the 1,000 residents evacuated from the Gold Complex fires were returning home on Friday. Some crews peeled off to help fight the park fire.
“As the (park) fire to the west demonstrates, some of these fires just absolutely explode and burn at a rate that's hard to even imagine,” Tim Hike, Forest Service incident commander at the Gold Complex fire 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Rena, he said on Friday. “A fire doesn't look so bad until it doesn't.” And then it might be too late.”
Forest Ranch evacuee Sherry Alpers fled with her 12 small dogs and decided to stay in her car outside the Red Cross shelter in Chico after learning the animals would not be allowed inside. She ruled out traveling to another shelter after learning the dogs would be kept in cages because her dogs always roamed free at her home.
Alpers said she doesn't know if the fire spared her or not, but she said as long as her dogs are safe, she doesn't care about material things.
“I'm a little worried, but not that much,” she said. “If it's gone, it's gone.
Brian Bowles also lived in his car outside the shelter with his dog, Diamon. He said he didn't know if his mobile home was still standing.
Bowles said he only has a $100 gift card he received from the United Way, which gave it out to evacuees.
“Now the question is, do I get a motel room and comfort for one night? Or should I put gas in the car and sleep here?” he said. “Tough choice.”
In Oregon, a Grant County search and rescue team on Friday morning found a small single-engine air tanker that went missing while battling the 567-square-mile (567-square-kilometer) Falls Fire, which is burning near the town of Seneca and the Malheur National Forest. . The pilot died, Bureau of Land Management information officer Lisa Clark said. No one else was on board the agency-contracted plane when it crashed into steep wooded terrain.
Jasper National Park in Canada's Rockies suffered the worst damage so far, where a fast-moving fire forced 25,000 people to flee and devastated the park's World Heritage-listed town of the same name.
In Idaho, lightning strikes caused fast-moving fires and the evacuation of many communities. The fires were burning around 80 square kilometers on Friday afternoon.
Videos posted on social media include a man who said he heard explosions as he fled Juliaetta, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) southeast of the University of Idaho campus in Moscow. The town of more than 600 residents was evacuated Thursday just ahead of the raging fires, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River and the Nez Perce Tribal Hatchery Complex, which raises salmon.
There is no estimate yet of the number of buildings burned in Idaho, nor information on damage to urban communities, officials said Friday morning.
Oregon still has the largest active wildfire in the United States, the Durkee Fire, which combined with the Cow Fire has burned nearly 1,630 square kilometers. It remains unpredictable and was only 20 percent contained on Friday, according to the government website InciWeb.
The National Interagency Fire Center said more than 27,000 fires have burned more than 15,000 square kilometers in the U.S. this year, and more than 22,800 square kilometers have burned in more than 3,700 fires so far in Canada, according to the National Wildland Fire Situation Report. issued on Wednesday.
