Firefighters have made progress battling massive wildfires that have left a trail of devastation across the western U.S., but thousands of firefighters continue to work to contain the blazes.
In Northern California, the so-called Park Fire is raging and becoming the state’s largest wildfire this year. In Southern California, the historic mining town of Havilah is engulfed in flames. And in Oregon and Idaho, officials are assessing the damage caused by several large wildfires raging in those states.
These fires are some of more than 100 currently burning across the US. Some are self-ignited, but many are caused by weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the American West endures extreme heat and dry conditions.
As of Monday, the Park Fire had burned an area larger than the city of Los Angeles, darkening the sky with smoke and drawing the efforts of thousands of firefighters. Over 360,000 acres Near the university town of Chico.
The fire started Wednesday when authorities say a man drove the burning car into a ditch in Chico and fled the scene. The man accused of arson is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
Authorities don’t expect the fire to spread farther into Chico, and firefighters will spend the next three days fighting the blaze and removing hazardous materials, Cal Fire Operations Chief Jeremy Pierce said Sunday.
The weekend fire spread into Paradise, a town where 85 people died in a devastating wildfire in 2018. Paradise and several other towns in Butte County were under evacuation warnings Sunday, but the southernmost part of the fire, closest to Paradise, is in “very good condition,” Pierce said.
In an update early Monday, officials said they expect winds and temperatures to increase slightly due to declining humidity.
About 4,000 firefighters are battling the blaze, assisted by multiple helicopters and air tankers, and Parkland Fire spokesman Jay Tracey said he hopes the reinforcements will give firefighters who have been working nonstop since Wednesday some much-needed rest.
“This fire has taken a lot of people by surprise with how explosive it has grown,” he said. “It’s unprecedented.”
In Southern California, about 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate as a fire raged through Sequoia National Forest. The wind-fueled blaze, known as the Borrell Fire, was fueled by dry, dead vegetation and spread quickly. Over 53,000 acres By Monday.
No deaths have been reported in the Park and Borrell fires, but some people are ignoring evacuation orders, putting everyone at increased risk, said Andrew Freeborn with the Kern County Fire Department.
“When people ignore orders and try to call for help later, it takes firefighters away from fighting the fire,” he said. “This fire is spreading so fast and ferociously that they shouldn’t think they can wait until the last moment. They need to get out of the way.”
Freeborn said the historic mining town of Havilah and several other communities have been “highly impacted” by the fire, but it is too early to count the number of homes that have burned.
Mark Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, said temperatures are expected to remain cooler than normal through the middle of the week, but that doesn’t mean existing fires will go out.
The National Weather Service issued a “red flag” warning Monday for parts of California, as well as large swaths of Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming, which the service said meant dry fuels and strong winds were increasing the risk of fire.
The fires are burning in eastern Oregon and eastern Idaho, where officials are still assessing damage from a series of blazes known as the Gwen Fire, which was estimated to have burned 43 square miles (111 square kilometers) as of Sunday.
