A man was arrested for allegedly pushing a burning car into a gully near the blaze's origin outside Chico.
A wildfire that ignited Wednesday in Northern California exploded overnight, consuming over 71,489 acres and triggering evacuation orders across Butte and Tehama counties.
Named the Park Fire, it has swiftly become California's largest wildfire this year, according to Cal Fire, and was only 3 percent contained as of Thursday morning. The area is bracing for temperatures to reach 104 degrees in the afternoon.
Governor Gavin Newsom's office reported that at least 3,500 residents are under evacuation orders. Sierra Pacific timber company opened gates on their land to aid evacuations in Cohasset, a community with a single access route, according to Dan Collins, Cal Fire Butte County Fire Captain.
Though the cause remains under investigation, a 42-year-old man from Chico was arrested early Thursday by Cal Fire arson investigators. He was allegedly seen pushing a burning car into a gully in Bidwell Park, where the fire started. The flames from the car likely spread, igniting the Park Fire. The man is being held without bail until his arraignment on Monday.
Fire crews are concentrating on evacuations and defending structures while establishing containment lines, according to the Butte County Fire Department. An evacuation center has been set up in Chico, and the state has secured a federal grant to combat the fire, Governor Newsom’s office announced. Though no official reports of structure damage have been made, video footage shows at least one home engulfed in flames, likely from a leaking gas line.
Butte County has faced an active fire season this year. Earlier this month, the Thompson Fire destroyed over two dozen structures and burned more than 3,700 acres. Other significant wildfires in the county include the Junes Fire, which scorched more than 1,000 acres in June.
Jamie Grettum, a Salesforce instructor living in Chico, observed plumes of smoke from her neighborhood all afternoon. On Wednesday evening, she joined hundreds of others at a nearby park to watch the fire and gauge the threat level. “We know for sure we’re standing out there with survivors of [the Camp Fire],” she told The Washington Post. “It was tense and silent and sad.”
Grettum, a wildfire survivor herself—having lost her neighborhood to the 2007 Witch Fire in San Diego County—was mentally preparing for a potential evacuation. “When you’re packing and evacuating, you never think your house will burn. … I know better than that now,” she said.
Chico is located less than 15 miles west of Paradise, devastated by the Camp Fire, the deadliest fire in California’s history, in 2018. Grettum sensed the anxiety in the air, knowing many in the community were survivors of that tragic event.
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