After destroying nearly 200 structures, US wildfire threatens thousands more

FOREST RANCH, California — 

Fire crews worked Tuesday to hold on to the progress made against the largest blaze in California this year ahead of warming temperatures forecast for later this week.

Authorities said containment was 14% and lifted evacuation orders in some communities of Butte County, where the Park Fire started last week before spreading to a neighboring county and scorching an area bigger than Los Angeles. The massive fire continues to burn through rugged, inaccessible terrain with dense vegetation, threatening to spread to two other counties.

“That’s going to be a continued challenge for us moving forward over the next couple of days,” said Mark Brunton, an operations section chief with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Firefighters put out hot spots from the Park Fire near Forest Ranch, California, July 30, 2024.

Cooler weather has helped firefighters stop the blaze’s path near some communities like Forest Ranch, where some people began returning to unscathed homes Tuesday.

Christopher and Anita Angeloni have lived in the community of 1,600 for 23 years and have had to evacuate several times due to wildfires, including the 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and decimated the town of Paradise, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) south.

Christopher Angeloni said he constantly worked on creating defensible space around his home and was happy to return home nearly a week after evacuating to see his hard work paid off.

“We were prepared to possibly lose everything,” he said.

Anita Angeloni said it has been a stressful week.

“We have not been sleeping enough, very tense, praying all the time, teary eyes,” she said. “But we’re here. We’ll see for how long.”

A helicopter carries water over the Park Fire near Forest Ranch, California, July 30, 2024.

The Park Fire, now the fifth largest in the state’s recorded history, was one of more than 100 large active wildfires burning in the U.S. on Tuesday. It has scorched nearly 600 square miles (1,551 square kilometers), according to CAL Fire. For comparison, the city of Los Angeles covers about 470 square miles (1,217 square kilometers).

Some blazes were sparked by the weather, with climate change increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the western U.S. endures blistering heat and bone-dry conditions.

The Park Fire started last Wednesday after authorities say a man pushed a burning car down a ravine in Chico. It has destroyed nearly 200 structures and is threatening thousands more. The suspect, Ronnie Dean Stout II, was charged with arson on Monday. His public defender, Nicole Diamond, said in an email she had no comment.

Some progress against the fire was made after cooler temperatures, more humidity, and calmer winds in the last few days helped firefighters reach 14% containment as of Tuesday.

In the small forest community of Cohasset in Butte County, Ron Ward ignored evacuation orders last week and stayed behind with his son to defend his property, seeing Park Fire flames hundreds of feet high approach his family ranch.

He had lost insurance coverage on the property just a month earlier as companies increasingly drop California homeowners due to the growing risk of wildfires in the state.

He said the flames reached within 70 feet (21 meters) of his house. Then they stopped.

“It hit our sprinklers and kind of died down and then went around our property and missed, missed all of our structures,” Ward said. His 100-year-old ranch was saved.

Ward had to be the one to call his bookkeeper and neighbors to tell them their homes were gone.

“They haven’t even been able to get back to look at their homes,” he said, tearing up as he recounted last week’s experience to The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

All through Cohasset, there were remnants of the devastation, with charred mailboxes and vehicles covered with pink fire retardant dropped by aircraft. The husks of a washer and dryer set were surrounded by burned debris and a blackened motorcycle was propped upright, balancing on rims after its tires melted away.

Evacuation orders were in effect Tuesday on 25 wildfires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 27,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel are assigned to wildfires that have burned more than 3,200 square miles (8,288 square kilometers) nationwide, the center said.

In Southern California, people in Kern and Tulare counties were ordered to evacuate because of a fire sweeping through the Sequoia National Forest. The Borel Fire scorched through almost the entirety of the historic mining town of Havilah, officials said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is scheduled to visit the town of 250 people later Tuesday.

“We’re seeing so many of these iconic places in California . . . being quite literally devastated by these new realities,” Newsom said.

The fires burning throughout the state have overwhelmed California’s firefighting capacity and outside help has started to arrive, officials said. Newsom thanked Texas Governor Gregg Abbott on Tuesday for sending more than two dozen fire engines to help combat the Park Fire this week.

U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell said one-third of U.S. residents live in an area where human activities and wildland vegetation intersect, creating a higher potential for wildfires, according to a statement.

“We question living here for sure,” Ward said of his ranch in Cohasset. But generations have remained since his wife’s great-grandfather settled there in 1905, and he isn’t the one to leave, he said.

“There’s a lot of history here,” Ward said. “So we live on this ranch, and we’re committed to this ranch and preserving the ranch.”

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