Cal Fire has confirmed that more than a hundred structures have been damaged in the Park Fire that broke out last night near Chico, California. Firefighting conditions are expected to be difficult through Friday night.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The Park Fire in Northern California has tripled in size since yesterday morning, now covering more than 178,000 acres. The fire has forced more than 4,000 people to evacuate in the foothills west of Chico and has destroyed 134 structures so far, climate reporter Ezra David Romero of member station KQED reports.
EZRA DAVID ROMERO, BYLINE: David Eleazer lives below the forest line above Chico. He tried to evacuate Wednesday but had to return home because the fire had spread across the road to his house. He was able to get down the mountain Thursday morning.
DAVID ELEAZER: Everything was on fire on both sides of the road. I lost my dogs.
ROMERO: He wasn’t sure if his dogs were still alive. He couldn’t find them to take with him.
ELEAZER: Yeah, they were with me when I first tried to get out of there. And then they took me back home, and they – but I don’t know what happened. They were confused.
ROMERO: The evacuation warning was extended Thursday night to 12 miles away, to the town of Paradise, which was devastated by the Camp Fire in 2018. This is the second time in five years that Eleazer has had to evacuate because of a wildfire. He lost his previous home in 2020 to another nearby fire. This time, he wasn’t surprised.
ELEAZER: This is the only place in Butte County that hasn’t really burned, you know? This is the only place that has big trees, and, yeah, we talked about that.
ROMERO: Arson investigators have arrested a man they believe started the Park Fire by pushing a burning car into a ditch in Bidwell Park on the northwest edge of Chico. Law enforcement is holding him without bail.
(SOUND OF FIRE TRUCK PASSING)
ROMERO: At the Park Fire incident command center at the fairgrounds in Chico, some crews are returning from the spreading fire and new crews are heading out. Dan Collins is Cal Fire’s public information officer.
DAN COLLINS: They’re leaving the mission to get food, resupply, and find a hotel to rest for the night.
ROMERO: In the distance, a plume of smoke from the fire was rising into the sky.
COLLINS: That’s a clear indication of serious wildfire conditions on the ground.
ROMERO: The red flag warning is in effect until 11 p.m. tonight. Collins says the fire has the potential to spread exponentially.
COLLINS: We anticipate a challenging firefight for our air and ground forces.
ROMERO: He said the grass and brush were too dry, the temperatures were too hot and the winds were too strong to put out the fire quickly.
I’m Ezra David Romero in Chico, for NPR News.
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