Thousands battle wildfires in the West, millions affected by air quality warnings: NPR

An aircraft drops fire retardant over the Park Fire near Forest Ranch, California, on Sunday, July 28, 2024. Smoke from the fire is causing air quality problems throughout the Northwest and parts of Canada.

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FOREST RANCH, Calif. – Wildfires raging across the western U.S. and Canada had millions of people under air quality warnings Sunday as thousands of firefighters battled blazes, including the largest wildfire this year in California.

By Sunday morning, the so-called Park Fire had devastated more than 1,430 square kilometers of inland Northern California, darkening the skies with smoke and haze and contributing to poor air quality across much of the northwestern United States and western Canada.

Although the widespread fire is only 12 percent contained, lower temperatures and higher humidity could help firefighters fight the fire. The fire is being compared to the 2018 Camp Fire, which raged in the nearby community of Paradise, killing 85 people and burning 11,000 homes.

Paradise and several other Butte County communities were under an evacuation warning on Sunday. But Cal Fire Chief of Operations Jeremy Pierce had good news for the area: Around midday, he said the southernmost front of the Park Fire, closest to Paradise, was “looking really good” and crews were focusing on clearing the area over the next three days. He also said they did not expect the fire to advance further into Chico, a city of about 100,000 people west of Paradise.

Rescue workers initially focused on saving lives and property threatened by the Park Fire, but have since shifted their focus to fighting the fire directly, Jay Tracy, a Park Fire headquarters spokesman, told The Associated Press by phone on Sunday. About 3,400 firefighters are battling the blaze, supported by numerous helicopters and firefighting planes, and Tracy said the reinforcements will provide much-needed respite to local firefighters, some of whom have been working nonstop since the fire broke out on Wednesday.

“This fire is surprising a lot of people with its explosive spread,” he said. “It’s kind of unprecedented.”

Although below-average temperatures are expected in the region through the middle of this week, that does not mean “that the existing fires will disappear,” said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Andrea Douglas holds her head during evacuation as the Park Fire crosses Highway 36 near Paynes Creek in Tehama County, California, on Friday.

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The fire destroyed at least 66 buildings and damaged five others, Tracy said. Authorities initially estimated 134 buildings had been destroyed based on drone footage, but reduced the number after crews assessed the damage in person.

“Unfortunately, that number is likely to increase,” Tracy said. “It could increase every day – of course, our teams are not conducting damage inspections when a fire is raging in an area.”

The park fire started Wednesday when a man pushed a burning car into a ravine in Chico and then fled, according to authorities. A Chico man accused of setting the fire was arrested Thursday and is due in court Monday.

The northern half of the fire remained challenging Sunday, Pierce said, with crews using bulldozers and other equipment to cut firebreaks through the rocky, difficult terrain to stop the flames from spreading.

The Park Fire was one of more than 100 fires raging across the U.S. on Sunday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, some of which were sparked by weather as climate change increases the frequency of lightning strikes while the Western U.S. endures sweltering heat and bone-dry conditions.

Despite the improvement in fire weather in Northern California, conditions remain conducive to the formation of more fires. The National Weather Service warned of “red flag” conditions for Sunday in much of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, as well as parts of California.

In Southern California, a fire raged in the Sequoia National Forest in the community of Havilah after burning more than 124 square kilometers in less than three days. An evacuation order was issued for the town of about 250 residents.

Fires also raged in eastern Oregon and eastern Idaho, where authorities assessed the damage from a group of fires called the “Gwen Fire,” estimated at 106 square kilometers (42 square miles) on Sunday.