Park fire in Northern California has more than tripled in size on the second day; arsonist arrested: “We are in shock”

A raging wildfire in Northern California, near Chico, has more than tripled in size for the second day and a man has been arrested on arson charges.

The Park Fire started in a park Wednesday afternoon and spread from about 6,400 acres late Wednesday night to 45,550 acres by Thursday morning. It then exceeded 164,000 acres — about 256 square miles — by Friday morning, Cal Fire said. Containment was at 3% but fell to zero percent.

“The fingers of this fire are spreading in different directions depending on which way the wind is blowing,” said Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.

Cal Fire investigators arrested a 42-year-old Chico man suspected of setting the fire, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey announced. Officials later identified the suspect as Ronnie Dean Stout II.

His arrest followed reports of a man pushing a burning car into a ravine in the upper part of Bidwell Park, where the fire started, around 3 p.m. Wednesday, the district attorney said. The car slid 65 feet down an embankment and burst into flames, sparking the park fire.

Ramsey said the man then quietly fled the area along with other residents who fled as the fire spread rapidly. A local judge issued an arrest warrant Thursday morning and Stout was booked into the Butte County Jail, where he would be held without bail until his arraignment on Monday, according to the warrant.

Authorities in Butte County and neighboring Tehama County issued numerous evacuation orders and warnings as the Park Fire developed. CBS News Sacramento reportedEmergency shelters have been set up for people and animals affected by the fire, and California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said in a press release early Thursday that 3,500 people had already been evacuated from the area.

Officials said Friday morning that 134 buildings had been destroyed by the fire. CBS Sacramento captured footage of several destroyed homes.

Julia Yarbough saw her house burning on her home’s security camera.

“We’re in shock right now,” she told CBS News’ Jonathan Vigliotti, who accompanied her on her first return. “It’s really surreal.” Yarbough is a former news anchor at Action News Now, a CBS affiliate station in Chico. She was also an anchor and reporter at KCBS in Los Angeles.

Newsom announced that the state had received a grant from FEMA to support California’s response to the fast-spreading fire. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed the grant approval.

According to Homeland Security, about 1,100 homes in and around the towns of Eco, Richardson Springs and Cohasset, all in Butte County, were under direct threat when the agency received Newsom’s request for assistance – before the number of homes increased sevenfold. Those three towns alone normally have about 10,000 people living there, the department said.

According to Cal Fire, more than 1,153 firefighters were deployed to fight the fire.

Even after the arsonist’s arrest on Thursday, the investigation into the park fire and its cause is still ongoing, Ramsey said.

The Park Fire is currently the largest, but by far not the only, forest fire in California. And further north, in Oregon, the The Durkee Fire became so large and powerful that it created its own weather.

The recent wildfires in Butte County

As CBS News Sacramento points out, Butte County had a very eventful fire season this summer.

The Thompson Fire In the Oroville area, more than 3,700 acres of land were recently burned, tens of thousands of people were forced to evacuate their homes, and dozens of structures, including houses, were destroyed.

The day after the Thompson Fire broke out the Grubbs fire The town of Palermo, located south of it, was much smaller, but also had to be evacuated.

In mid-July, the Railbridge Fire devastated 53 hectares of land south of Palermo, requiring evacuations, destroying or damaging several buildings, and injuring at least one person.

Already in June Apache firewhich burned in the same area near Oroville and Palermo, scorching nearly 280 acres of land and forcing its own wave of evacuations.

Almost two weeks before the Apache fire June fire In Palermo, almost 450 hectares of land burned down and people had to leave their homes.

In 2018, the Camp Fire charred more than 150,000 acres in Butte County and nearly destroyed the town of Paradise. 85 people died in the Camp Fire, making it the deadliest in the history of the state.