California’s wildfires continue to burn as firefighters work to contain them.
The Park Fire in Butte, Tehama, Shasta and Plumas counties —the largest of California’s active fires — burned over 373,000 acres with only 14% containment as of Monday night, according to Cal Fire.
The blaze started at a park in Chico on Wednesday and rapidly moved into wildlands to the north, blossoming to over 348,000 acres with no containment by Saturday afternoon, Cal Fire said.
It has now surpassed the size of the 2020 North Complex Fire and the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex Fire to become the sixth-largest fire in state history, according Cal Fire.
Authorities allege the Park Fire was started when a man pushed a car that was on fire into a gully Wednesday. A suspect, Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico, was arrested Thursday, Ramsey said. He was booked on suspicion of felony arson and held without bail, according to Butte County Jail records.
On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said “all hands are on deck” in the effort to contain the blaze
“You’re hearing aerial assets above, putting all hands on deck,” Newsom said in a video on X. “350,000 acres and growing by the second. Over 2,500 personnel working the fire, working to hold the line, doing what they can.”
Active wildfires across California have consumed more than 726,000 acres as of the weekend, according to Cal Fire.
The Gold Complex Fire, which started a week ago, has consumed 3,007 acres and was 98% contained by Monday morning, the agency’s website indicated.
Elsewhere in California, the SQF Lightning Fire, which combined the Borel Fire, the Trout Fire, and other blazes in and near the Sequoia National Forest, burned more than 23,000 acres and had containment of 0%.
Elevated fire risk continues for the West on Monday as a result of raging fires, with red flag warnings peppered across parts of California, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado.
Haze and smoke from the wildfires will push east into the Plains and the Midwest on Monday and Tuesday. Air quality alerts are up for parts of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Colorado.
The new week is also bringing with it an expanded upper-level high pressure system that will once again boost temperatures into the triple digits by midweek for much of the nation’s midriff, federal forecasters said.
The High Plains and the Middle and Lower Mississippi Valley could record temperatures as high as 115 degrees, the weather service said, with little cooling likely from overnight low temperatures expected to remain in the high 70s
