The largest wildfire in the US swelled to more than 380,000 acres (154,000 hectares) on Tuesday morning, an area bigger than the city of Los Angeles and three times the surface area of Lake Tahoe, as thousands of firefighters battled the blaze in a remote wilderness area in northern California.
Meanwhile, the destruction caused by wildfires raging across the US west came into sharp focus as photographers documented the destruction left by the Borel fire in southern California. The fast-growing fire tore through the historic mining town of Havilah, leaving burnt buildings, cars and forests.
About 2,000 people were ordered to evacuate because of the fire, which burned through the Sequoia national forest. By Tuesday morning, the fire had torn through more than 57,000 acres (23,000 hectares) and was 17% contained.
No fatalities have been reported.
In northern California, more than 5,500 firefighters were working to contain the Park fire, the largest wildfire in the state this year, which has moved up the ranks to become the fifth largest in the state’s recorded history.
By Tuesday afternoon, the fire had scorched more than 386,000 acres, according to the California department of forestry and fire (Cal Fire). It has destroyed more than 190 structures and is threatening 4,200 more.
After several days of intense firefighting efforts, crews had reached 14% of containment on Tuesday morning amid cooler temperatures and more humidity, but the fire continued to burn very actively, Cal Fire said. With the steep terrain, wind activity and many areas inaccessible to crews, the fire is making uphill runs and spot fires continue to occur, the agency said.
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 Cal Fire.
Cooler weather has helped firefighters stop the blaze’s path near some communities like Forest Ranch, where some people began returning to unscathed homes on 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, which killed 85 people and decimated the nearby town of Paradise.
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.”
The man arrested on suspicion of starting the blaze by pushing a burning car into a gully made his first appearance in court on Monday and was charged with felony arson of an inhabited structure or property.
Ronnie Dean Stout was arrested at his home in Chico a day after the fire started. Prosecutors said Stout had a previous criminal record and would face life in prison if convicted.
The Butte county district attorney, Michael Ramsey, told reporters after the hearing that Stout said the incident was an accident, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Acres burned
US wildfires are measured in terms of acres. While the size of a wildfire doesn’t necessarily correlate to its destructive impact, acreage provides a way to understand a fire’s footprint and how quickly it has grown.
There are 2.47 acres in a hectare, and 640 acres in a square mile, but this can be hard to visualise. Here are some easy comparisons: one acre equates to roughly the size of an American football field. London’s Heathrow airport is about 3,000 acres. Manhattan covers roughly 14,600 acres, while Chicago is roughly 150,000 acres, and Los Angeles is roughly 320,000 acres.
Megafire
A megafire is defined by the National Interagency Fire Center as a wildfire that has burned more than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares). That’s an area about the size of Rhode Island.
Containment level
A wildfire’s containment level indicates how much progress firefighters have made in controlling the fire. Containment is achieved by creating perimeters the fire can’t move across. This is done through methods such as putting fire retardants on the ground, digging trenches, or removing brush and other flammable fuels.
Containment is measured in terms of the percentage of the fire that has been surrounded by these control lines. A wildfire with a low containment level, such as 0% or 5%, is essentially burning out of control. A fire with a high level of containment, such as 90%, isn’t necessarily extinguished but rather has a large protective perimeter and a rate of growth that is under control.
Evacuation orders and warnings
Evacuation warnings and orders are issued by officials when a wildfire is causing imminent danger to people’s life and property. According to the California office of emergency services, an evacuation warning means that it's a good idea to leave an area or get ready to leave soon. An evacuation order means that you should leave the area immediately.
Red flag warning
A red flag warning is a type of forecast issued by the National Weather Service that indicates when weather conditions are likely to spark or spread wildfires. These conditions typically include dryness, low humidity, high winds and heat.
Prescribed burn
A prescribed burn, or a controlled burn, is a fire that is intentionally set under carefully managed conditions in order to improve the health of a landscape. Prescribed burns are carried out by trained experts such as members of the US forest service and indigenous fire practitioners. Prescribed burns help remove flammable vegetation and reduce the risk of larger, more catastrophic blazes, among other benefits.
Prescribed burning was once a common tool among Native American tribes who used “good fire” to improve the land, but was limited for much of the last century by a US government approach based on fire suppression. In recent years, US land managers have returned to embracing the benefits of prescribed burns, and now conduct thousands across the country every year.
The district attorney said during a press conference that Stout was seen drinking at a swimming hole in the area before the fire started and drove “recklessly” through the area before the car went over a berm. Witnesses reported hearing the sounds of an engine revving and scraping.
“The indication is he didn’t purposely light the car on fire because he was trying to get out of being stuck on the edge of a berm,” Ramsey said, according to KQED. “We have another witness who saw dirt and smoke coming up, then followed immediately by smoke. Then fire. There’s an extraordinary amount of dry grass.”
The Park and Borel fires are two of more than 100 blazes active in the US west. Evacuation orders were in effect on Monday on 25 wildfires, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 27,000 wildland firefighters and support personnel are deployed.
Some blazes were sparked by the weather, with the climate crisis increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the western US endures blistering heat and bone-dry conditions.
In Colorado, the Alexander Mountain fire doubled in size between Monday and Tuesday to more than 1,800 acres, according to the US Forest Service. The blaze, about 12 miles (19km) west of Loveland, Colorado, where the Rocky Mountains fold into the Great Plains, spurred mandatory evacuation orders and produced a looming column of smoke that could be seen for miles.
In Oregon, the 2024 wildfire season has burned more than 1.2m acres so far, according to the State of Oregon Fires and Hotspots Dashboard, a total that surpasses the size of the entire state of Rhode Island.
The state’s largest wildfire, the Durkee fire in Baker county, has burned nearly 300,000 acres and is more than 50% contained.
“Although yesterday’s rain was beneficial,” a Tuesday update from fire officials read, “it was not enough to extinguish heat on the fire.”
