A massive wildfire in California has grown to over 160,000 acres in size in only two days, making it the largest fire the state has seen this year.
The Park Fire, which started near the town of Chico in California's Butte County on Wednesday, has scorched 164,282 acres of land across Butte and neighboring Tehama County, forcing over 4,000 people to be evacuated from their homes.
The fire was only 3 percent contained as of about 2 a.m. local time Friday morning and is suspected to have been started by arson.
The blaze grew rapidly overnight. At around 9 p.m. on Thursday, the fire was 124,948 acres.
"Today the Park Fire burned very actively with hot, dry weather over the region. The fire area is currently under a Red Flag Warning due to gusty winds and low humidity," Cal Fire said in a status update. "The fire is burning in some grass, brush, mixed timber and dead vegetation."
"The Park Fire displayed dynamic fire activity overnight. Winds remained a factor and the temperature stayed in the 80s," the Thursday Cal Fire status update said.
A 42-year-old Chico man named Ronnie Stout was arrested on suspicion of arson on Wednesday night. Stout is suspected of having started the Park Fire by pushing a burning car into a 60-foot ditch, according to the Butte County District Attorney.
Large areas of Butte and Tehama have been evacuated, with over 4,200 structures being threatened by the blaze. San Francisco's SFGate reported that a rare "pyrotornado" was seen over the fire on Thursday evening and was caught on a nearby wildlife camera.
This region of California is currently in the grips of an intense heat wave, with temperatures on Wednesday reaching well into the 100s. The fire has spread so rapidly due to the dry weather combined with strong winds and a glut of vegetation to burn.
"It started in Bidwell Park and spread in a northerly direction because of the south wind it had on it," Capt. Dan Collins, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, told SFGATE on Thursday morning. "It made a significant run last night and got well established. One of the factors of that was the fire got into areas with little to no burn history, and there's very heavy vegetation. These areas are not easily accessible to ground resources."
While temperatures are expected to fall over the weekend, the weather will remain dry and windy, meaning that conditions will stay ideal for wildfire spread. A Red Flag Warning is in place in the area until 11 p.m. this evening, according to the National Weather Service, which "means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now, or will shortly."
"Southerly wind 15-20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph," NWS said in an advisory on Friday. "Minimum daytime relative humidity of 10 to 20 percent expected. The combination of gusty wind and lower humidity can cause new fire starts and ongoing wildfires to grow rapidly and dangerously in size and intensity."
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about wildfires? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
