Firefighters cautiously watch the weather as Western wildfires spread

Originally Published: 29 JUL 24 02:39 ET

Updated: 29 JUL 24 05:21 ET

By Zoe Sottile and Susannah Cullinane, CNN

(CNN) — Wildfires are burning across the Western United States and Canada, damaging homes, causing injuries and forcing evacuations. The largest active wildfire in the US has scorched more than 360,000 acres – an area larger than the city of Phoenix – and firefighters are watching to see if the weather will help give them an advantage. Here is the latest:

• Hope for stopping wildfires’ spread: The weather forecast for the Northwest calls for lighter winds than the area has seen in recent days, giving firefighters some optimism about slowing the progress of the Park Fire, along with more than 100 large wildfires burning across the region, consuming thousands of acres. Temperatures across much of the West will be at or below average to start this week, with forecast highs through Tuesday ranging between the 60s and 70s along the Pacific Coast and the 70s and 80s in the inland Pacific Northwest.

• Park Fire is largest active wildfire in the US: The Park Fire, the seventh-largest wildfire in California history, is now at more than 360,000 acres or 560 square miles. The fire has destroyed 100 structures and threatens thousands more, according to CalFire. It was 12% contained as of Monday morning but evacuations warnings or orders remained in Butte, Tehama, Plumas and Shasta counties. Lower winds from the south could help take pressure off the fire’s eastern edge. President Joe Biden has directed his administration to do everything possible to support ongoing fire suppression efforts, according to a White House official.

• Arson suspect to be arraigned Monday: A 42-year-old man, identified as Ronnie Dean Stout II, has been arrested after being accused of igniting the Park Fire. The man is suspected of pushing a burning car 60 feet into a gully, spreading flames that caused the inferno, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said.

• Progress fighting Durkee Fire in Oregon: The Durkee Fire is the largest wildfire burning in Oregon, at more than 288,000 acres. It has injured three people and destroyed four residences. The fire was49% contained as of Monday morning, according to InciWeb, and the figure could improve as winds calm and humidity levels moderate.

• Borel Fire damages historic mining community: The fire in Kern County, California, “swept through the community of Havilah and Piute Meadows Ranches,” CalFire said. Havilah was discovered in 1864 and for more than 20 years served as an active mining center, according to California State Parks. The Borel Fire had burned more than 50,000 acres and had zero containment as of Sunday night.

• Crews to see more challenges in Jasper, Alberta: Though weekend rain helped firefighters combat the Jasper Wildfire Complex – the park’s largest wildfire in more than a century – warmer weather in the days ahead might present further challenges. Temperatures in the area have dropped and there is a chance of showers Monday, with highs expected in the upper 60s to mid-70s and rising through the week. Wildfire danger for the southern areas of the province remain very high to extreme, according to Melissa Story, spokesperson for Alberta Wildfire. “This area did not see the moisture as the other areas of the province did,” Story said.

• Air tanker pilot who died fighting fire in Oregon identified: James Bailey Maxwell, an experienced pilot who logged about 24,000 hours of flight time in his 54 years of flying, died after his single-engine air tanker crashed while working near the Falls Fire in Oregon Thursday, according to a statement from the US Forest Service – Malheur National Forest. “He is survived by and will be missed by family members in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington,” the statement said. The Falls Fire began on July 10 and has since burned more than 142,000 acres and is 57% contained as of Sunday, according to InciWeb.

Firefighters make progress in California

Cloud and smoke coverage allowed firefighters to increase containment lines around the Park Fire Saturday, but the challenges returned on Sunday, CalFire Incident Commander Billy See said.

While some areas were downgraded from evacuation orders to warnings, spot fires prevented officials from lifting or changing more orders and warnings, officials said.

“We are working really hard to get people back into their house as soon as possible,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea.

Jeremy Hollingshead, a firefighter and spokesman for Yuba City Fire Department, told CNN conditions have not been favorable for crews.

“It was a wind-driven fire, it was a topography-driven fire, fuel-driven fire, everything was stacked against us,” Hollingshead said. “At that point in time, we threw everything we had at it, but again, we’re not going to put anybody at the head of this thing. What we had to do was put crews in the high-risk areas, where structures could possibly burn and do the best work they can there.”

He added firefighters took advantage of more favorable conditions to try and get a better handle on the blaze.

“Firefighters right now, from the sky to the ground, they’re taking advantage of the break we do have in the weather, so hopefully in the next few days we can mitigate a lot of that threat,” Hollingshead said.

Chico, California, the largest city in Butte County where the Park Fire is ongoing, will see temperatures in the low 90s for Monday and Tuesday, a significant drop from the triple digit temperatures of last week. Winds continue to decrease for the Park Fire area as well, with sustained winds below 10 mph Monday, and as low as 5 mph by Tuesday.

There is even a weak storm system approaching the Pacific Northwest, expected to bring some shower chances. This amount of rainfall is helpful as it doesn’t lead to as great of flash flooding risk for burn scars.

Residents describe driving through flames of ‘angry fire’

The massive Park Fire, believed to be the result of arson, forced thousands to flee their homes as it exploded after igniting Wednesday near Chico, California, consuming thousands of acres per hour, burning dozens of structures and leaving behind graveyards of burned trees and cars.

Retired Chico firefighter John Maretti told CNN he has lost his house in the Park Fire despite preparing as best he knew how.

“I bought a bulldozer. We cleared things out. We made sure that we had a Class A roof and non-flammable walls. We did a lot. We had sprinklers. We had hoses. I mean, I’m a firefighter. I set this up for maximum opportunity for the house to make it and it did not, Maretti said. “There’s just no way that anybody could have survived with this house.”

Despite the destruction of his property, Maretti said he felt fortunate the household – including two dogs and a cat – had escaped unharmed, something he put down in part to breaking his ankle last Monday.

“I felt very capable staying. And I have hoses, I have all sorts of equipment, but with a broken ankle, there’s just no choice. I had to leave. And fortunately, because I had the broken ankle, I probably saved my life, because I probably would have stayed and tried to fight it, which would have been the wrong decision,” he said.

Maretti said the speed at which the fire had spread wasn’t what he was used to.

“So this was just a lot faster fire than I’d ever seen,” Maretti said. “This is just an angry fire, and completely different than anything I’ve ever seen before.”

A Tehama County resident described to CNN affiliate KOVR fleeing the Park Fire on the only exit road out of their neighborhood – which the blaze had already jumped.

“When we saw the fire coming over the ridge, which it did, it was coming at us. We thought that was bad. And then we put everything in the car and took off,” Jim Young told KOVR.

“We get on the highway and it is burning on both sides for 10 miles. It was like driving through an inferno,” Young said.

The Park Fire is burning in Butte County, where California’s deadliest wildfire, the Camp Fire, killed more than 85 people and destroyed thousands of homes in 2018.

Bruce Hey and his brother-in-law Christopher Apel told KOVR that the blaze had forced them to evacuate their adjoining properties in the Cohasset area.

“We had a lot of people who were staying there from the Camp Fire and … and everything is burning,” Apel told KOVR.

Hey said that he drove through the blaze to safety, but burned his arm in the process.

“I tried to outrun it,” he said. “I wouldn’t have gotten burned if I hadn’t rolled down the window to look in the rearview mirror. I was right in the middle of it and I was trying to put it in reverse.”

More than 17,000 remain evacuated in Jasper, Alberta

Jasper, a popular tourist town in the middle of Alberta’s Jasper National Park, has seen widespread destruction due to the wildfire there, which has scorched just under 90,000 acres.

The park remains closed and more than 17,000 people are still under evacuation orders, Jose Tilney, deputy managing director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday afternoon.

Almost 40% of all structures in the city have been destroyed by the Jasper Wildlife Complex fire, data released Saturday by the Municipality of Jasper show.

Of the 1,113 structures in the town, 410 were reported to be destroyed, and 10 sustained visible damage, the Jasper Rapid Visual Damage Assessment said.

The fire remains “out-of-control and is expected to become more active over the coming days with warmer weather,” Parks Canada said.

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