FOREST RANCH, Calif. (AP) — Thousands of firefighters battling a wildfire in Northern California received some help from the weather Saturday hours after it exploded in size, scorching an area greater than the size of Los Angeles. The blaze was one of several tearing through the western United States and Canada, fueled by wind and heat.
Cooler temperatures and an increase in humidity could help slow the Park Fire, the largest this year in California. Its intensity and dramatic spread led fire officials to make unwelcome comparisons to the monstrous Camp Fire, which burned out of control in nearby Paradise in 2018, killing 85 people and torching 11,000 homes.
Paradise again was near the danger zone. The entire town was under an evacuation warning, one of several communities in Butte County. Evacuation orders were also issued in Plumas, Tehama and Shasta counties. An evacuation warning calls for people to prepare to evacuate and await instructions, while an evacuation order means to leave immediately.
Temperatures are expected to be cooler than average through the middle of next week, but “that doesn’t mean that fires that are existing will go away,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.
The Park Fire has scorched 547 square miles (1,416 square kilometers) as of Saturday and destroyed 134 structures since igniting Wednesday when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. It was 10% contained and moving to the north and east of Chico.
Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, was arrested Thursday at his home in Chico and was being held without bail pending a Monday arraignment, officials said. There was no reply to an email to the district attorney asking whether he had legal representation or someone who could comment on his behalf.
AP correspondent Jackie Quinn reports on the fight against the Park Fire in northern California, which has ruined homes and burned hundreds of miles of land so far.
Billy See, an incident commander with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said at a briefing that the blaze had been advancing 8 square miles (21 square kilometers) per hour since its inception. But there was cautious optimism as weather conditions slowed it in some areas, and firefighters were able to…