Fire crews held containment on the Park Fire steady Wednesday as it completed a full week of destructive burning across two Northern California counties.
The blaze was 18% contained as of 1:42 p.m. Wednesday, according to CalFire, a slight increase from the 14% containment estimate issued Tuesday morning.
The fire burned through acres across Butte and Tehama counties, with the majority of the charred area in Tehama County, according to CalFire. It has destroyed 358 structures and damaged an additional 21.
That figure marked a significant jump from the 192 structures destroyed and 19 structures damaged that CalFire reported Tuesday. The increase came as assessors were able to access previously-burning areas to count the damage, said Jahaira Zaragoza, public information officer for CalFire.
The Park Fire is the 5th-largest wildfire in California history, state fire officials reported. The flames have burned an area that is triple the surface area of Lake Tahoe, according to CalFire.
That would also cover an area some three times the size of San Jose, for comparison.
“It’s such a huge area, if you think about it,” said Sergio Arellano, public information officer for Cal Fire.
The fire continued to burn Wednesday, but it was making slow progress due to lower-than-expected temperatures and a thick cover of smoke, he added. Fire officials expected the fire to kick back up when the heat peaked, around 4 p.m.
“It’s spreading, but it’s not spreading that fast,” Arellano said, adding that the thick smoke made it difficult for aircrafts to make drops. “The saving grace right now is that it’s not too hot.”
Most fire activity was along the east side of the fire near Highway 22, he added. Some areas of flame — located in chutes and deep canyons — are difficult for fire personnel to access because of difficult terrain.
The fire prompted evacuations across four counties — in Butte and Tehama counties, where the fire was actively burning, as well as in Shasta and Plumas counties. Some areas were repopulating Wednesday as residents were allowed to return to their homes, Arellano said.
The blaze has so far put nearly 6,000 fire personnel to work, with fire crews traveling from southern California, Arizona and Washington to help, Arellano said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
Arellano anticipated that the fire will continue burning for at least several more weeks.
“Within that area, there are still unburned pockets,” Arellano said. “In order for us to walk away from that fire, everything has to be out.”
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District issued an air quality advisory for Wednesday and Thursday due to smoke from the Pedro Fire and other Bay Area fires. Air quality was expected to be moderate, according to the advisory, with skies appearing hazy and people smelling smoke at high altitudes.
Fire officials anticipate that the weather will become warmer and drier through the week, increasing the fire danger.
Temperatures in the Park Fire’s area were expected to reach into the high 90s and low 100s through the weekend and into early next week, said Bakari Anderson, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. Conditions were predicted to be dry with normal wind for this time of year — ranging from 10 to 15 mph in most areas, he added. A relative humidity level of about 20% Wednesday was expected to dip into the low teens on Thursday.
Authorities say the blaze had human origins: A 42-year-old Chico man was arrested on suspicion of deliberately starting the fire by pushing a burning vehicle into a gully in Bidwell Park.
Ronnie Dean Stout II was arraigned on an arson charge Monday.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsay said Tuesday that witnesses had spotted Stout drinking at a local establishment on the day of the incident involving the vehicle that eventually caught fire and was pushed into a ravine. Stout told authorities that he did not push the car into the ravine, but admitted to panicking and fleeing the scene after the vehicle burst into flames.
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