Park fire now one of largest in state history, weekend weather offers brief respite

Updated at 4pm Saturday

The Park Fire has burned nearly 350,000 acres north of Chico since Wednesday, making it one of the largest fires in state history.

Fortunately, firefighters battling the blaze should see some relief today and tomorrow, but according to Cal Fire, firefighting capacity was still at 0% Saturday afternoon.

Weather conditions have improved significantly to slow the spread of the fire, climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a webcast Saturday afternoon. Cooler temperatures have led to higher humidity, along with lighter winds. But, Swain added, this is temporary, with another major heat wave expected in five to seven days.

The fire has been kept from spreading across Highway 32 on the eastern flank and toward Paradise thanks to what he called aggressive firefighting. Highway 44 is also not in immediate danger, he said.

Swain expected the fire to likely reach at least 500,000 acres, and did not rule out the possibility of it reaching a million acres, despite an aggressive, coordinated response by firefighters.

“I think we realize that even with probably the best-equipped wildland firefighting organization in the world in California, Cal Fire,” Swain said, “it’s still impossible to fight a fire of that magnitude with the technology.”

By today the fire had grown explosively in size.

“It’s been growing at 5,000 acres per hour since the beginning of this incident,” said Billy See, the Incident Commander for CalFire during Saturday morning’s briefing. “We’re looking at almost eight square miles per hour.”

“It’s really unbelievable how fast it’s grown,” Cal Fire public information officer Rick Carhart told KQED. Despite the cooler weather, he said, the fire could still be erratic.

“That giant cloud that the fire creates, that’s a pyrocumulus cloud, which is essentially the fire creating its own weather,” Carhart said. “When the fire creates its own weather, it’s all unpredictable.”

Carhart added that some areas in the Cohasset and Forest Ranch regions have not seen fire activity in decades.

“If you haven’t had any fires for 20 years, that’s a lot of brush,” he said.

On Friday, the fire crossed Highway 36, impacting several small communities. CalFire’s Jed Gaines described how they had to pull teams of firefighters out of hotels to “spur them on” to maintain lines in the area, which meant some teams had to pull double shifts.

Evacuation orders are in effect for communities north of Chico. Evacuation orders have also been issued for areas in eastern Shasta County up to Highway 44 and Shingletown. In total, thousands of people are affected by evacuation orders, many of whom were affected by previous fires. Lassen Volcanic National Park has announced that it is closed due to the approaching Park Fire, with all reservations canceled and staff evacuated.

On X, formerly Twitter, Butte County posted: “Seeing the sky filled with smoke is impacting this community. The fact that this has caused people to evacuate who have been evacuated many times before is devastating. Please do not hesitate to contact the Butte County Behavioral Health Access Line if you need assistance: 530-891-2810.”

More than 130 buildings have been burned, and this number is likely to increase.

Information about evacuation shelters and animal shelters

Maps of evacuation zones:

Shelters in Butte, Tehama and Shasta Counties:

• Shasta County: Bella Vista Elementary School Evacuation Shelter, 22661 Old Alturas Rd, Bella Vista, CA 96008.
• Evacuation shelter at the Butte County Fairgrounds, 199 East Hazel Street, Gridley, Butte County.
• Butte County: Neighborhood Church Evacuation Shelter, 2801 Notre Dame Blvd Chico, CA 95928
• Tehama County: Red Cross Los Molinos Vet’s Hall Evacuation Shelter, 7980 Sherwood Blvd, Los Molinos, CA 96055.
• Tehama County Evacuation Resource Center, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 510 Jefferson St. Red Bluff, CA 96080 Saturday: 9am-6pm & Sunday: 11am-6pm
• Butte County: North Valley Animal Disaster Group Small Animal Shelter, 2279 Del Oro Ave, Oroville, CA 95965 8am-9pm No waterfowl or chickens allowed. 530-895-0000
• Tehama County Small Animal Shelter, 22005 Gilmore Ranch Road, Red Bluff, CA 96080 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
• Butte County: Camelot Equestrian Park, Large Animal Shelter, 1985 Clark Road, Oroville, CA 95966.
• Tehama County: Ridgeway Park Large Animal Shelter, 19725 Ridge Road, Red Bluff, CA 96080 7:00am–9:00pm Self-service, provide your own set-up and feed. Ridgeway has open space, an arena, and space for people to bring panels to set up livestock sites.
• Tehama County: Corning Rodeo Grounds at Estill C. Clark Park Large Animal Shelter, 103 E Fig Lane, Corning, CA 96021. Self-service, provide your own setup and food. Power and water are available. Use the east gate on the road on Fig Lane to access the site, the gate is closed but not locked.
• Redding Rodeo Grounds, Large Animal Shelter, 715 Auditorium Dr, Redding, CA 96001.

This message will be updated throughout the day.

KQED’s Natalia V Navarro, Katherine Monahan and Danielle Venton contributed to this report.