California’s largest wildfire so far this year continues to grow as it chews through timber and threatens essential utility networks.
To date, Wood Central understands that the Park Fire has burned through more than 1700 square kilometres of timberland since erupting late last month near the Sacramento Valley city of Chico and burning northward up the western flank of the Sierra Nevada. Meanwhile, according to Californian fire authorities, containment remained at 34%.
The blaze’s explosive growth has made it California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record before favourable weather reduced its intensity late last week. Due to the heat and very low relative humidity levels, it reawakened this week.
During Thursday morning’s operational briefing, officials said that many of the burned areas were in the mop-up stage, but spot fires were a continuing problem. Operations deputy Jed Gaines noted that the fire’s northeast corner was the top firefighting priority.
“It’s not time to celebrate,” he said. “We got several more days of hard work to hold what we got in there.”
The latest Park Fire assessments found 636 structures destroyed and 49 damaged. A local man was arrested after authorities alleged he started the fire by pushing a burning car into a gully in a wilderness park outside Chico.
About 160 kilometres to the south, a new forest fire in El Dorado County exhibited extreme behaviour, and some Park Fire aircraft were being diverted there.
Whilst the Crozier Fire, about 16 kilometres north of Placerville, had burned just over 2.6 square kilometres of timber and scrub as of Thursday morning and was just 5% contained.
- To learn more about the impact of wildfire on America’s 180 million-strong timber-based utility network, click on Wood Central’s special feature.