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Wildfires are raging out of control in the western U.S. and Canada, destroying homes, forcing evacuations and injuring residents. One fire has reportedly destroyed the historic mining town of Havilah. Another has burned more than 360,000 acres in California, an area larger than the city of Phoenix. Here are the latest updates.
• Borrell Fire Destroys Historic Mining Community: The fire in Kern County, California, “ravaged the communities of Havilah and Pute Meadows Ranch,” Cal Fire said. Havilah was discovered in 1864 and served as a mining center for more than 20 years, according to the California State Parks Department. The Borrell Fire has burned more than 50,000 acres and was uncontainable as of Sunday night.
• Hopes to stop wildfires from spreadingWeather forecasts for the Northwest are calling for lighter winds than the region has seen in recent days, giving firefighters some optimism about slowing the progress of the Park Fire. There are also more than 100 large wildfires burning in the region, which have burned thousands of acres. Temperatures across much of the West are expected to be near or below normal early this week, with highs in the 60s to 70s Fahrenheit along the Pacific Coast and 70s to 80s Fahrenheit inland parts of the Pacific Northwest through Tuesday.
• The Park Fire is the largest active wildfire in the United States. The Park Fire, the seventh largest wildfire in California history, has now spread to more than 360,000 acres (560 square miles). The fire has destroyed 100 structures and is threatening thousands more, according to Cal Fire. As of Monday morning, the fire was 12% contained, but evacuation advisories or orders remain in place in Butte, Tehama, Plumas and Shasta counties. Abating winds from the south could ease pressure on the eastern edge of the wildfire. According to a White House official, President Joe Biden has directed his administration to do everything possible to aid ongoing fire suppression efforts.
• The arson suspect will be arraigned on Monday.A 42-year-old man identified as Ronnie Dean Stout II was arrested on suspicion of igniting the Park Fire after allegedly driving a burning car 60 feet into a ravine, spreading flames and starting the inferno, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said.
• Oregon’s Darke Fire Progress: The Darke Fire is the largest wildfire in Oregon, burning more than 288,000 acres. The fire has injured three people and destroyed four homes. As of Monday morning, the fire was 49 percent contained, according to InciWeb, a figure that could improve as winds calm and humidity eases.
• Crews face additional challenges in Jasper, Alberta: Rain over the weekend helped firefighters fight the Jasper Complex Fire — the park’s largest wildfire in more than a century — but rising temperatures over the next few days may pose additional challenges. Temperatures in the region are expected to cool and possibly rain on Monday, with highs in the upper 60s to mid 70s Fahrenheit and rising throughout the week. Alberta Wildfire spokesperson Melissa Storey said wildfire danger remains very high to extremely high in the southern part of the province. “This region has not seen as much moisture as other parts of the province,” Storey said.
• Tanker pilot killed in Oregon fire identified: James Bailey Maxwell, a veteran pilot who logged nearly 24,000 flight hours in 54 years of flying experience, died Thursday when his single-engine air tanker crashed while working near the Falls Fire in Oregon, the U.S. Forest Service’s Malheur National Forest announced. “He will be mourned by his family 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 was 57% contained as of Sunday, according to InciWeb.
“Everybody lost everything.”
The Borrell Fire has destroyed the historic mining town of Havilah, leaving only a few buildings standing, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“We lost everything. Everything is gone,” resident Shawn Raines told The Times on Sunday. “The whole town burned down. A lot of people, friends that I know, everybody lost everything.”
Fire officials said at a weekend news conference that they were still assessing the number of homes and businesses destroyed in Havilah, population 250, but evacuation orders have been issued, according to Jim Snow, one of the officers in charge on the scene.
The Borrell Fire has exploded in size due to red flag conditions including high temperatures, extremely low humidity and high winds, and has burned 30,000 acres in 24 hours, Snow said.
Despite 1,200 personnel battling the blaze, it was 0% contained as of Sunday.
“Some of the edges of the fire are growing very quickly and we have to chase them instead of get in front of them,” Snow said. “There are a few minor injuries from this incident, but the majority are from heat stroke.”
Clouds and smoke allowed firefighters to expand containment lines around the Park Fire on Saturday, but they faced challenges again Sunday, Cal Fire Commander Billy See said.
Evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings in some areas, but localized fires prevented officials from lifting or changing any further orders or warnings, officials said.
David McNew/Getty Images
Firefighters on Sunday fought a backfire on the east side of the Park Fire, which, fueled by dry winds and dries vegetation, has grown to more than 360,000 acres and is 12 percent contained.
“We’re working hard to get people back into their homes as quickly as possible,” Butte County Sheriff Corey Honea said.
Yuba City Fire Department spokesman and firefighter Jeremy Hollingshead told CNN that conditions were not favorable for firefighters.
“It was a wind-driven fire, it was a terrain-driven fire, it was a fuel-driven fire, everything was stacked against us,” Hollingshead said. “At that point, we did everything we could, but again, I’m not going to put anybody in charge of this. What we had to do was get crews in the high-risk areas where structures could burn and do as much work as we could there.”
He added that firefighters were trying to take advantage of more favourable conditions to bring the blaze under control.
“Firefighters are currently working from the air to the ground to take advantage of improving weather conditions and are hopeful that they will be able to reduce much of that threat over the next few days,” Hollingshead said.
In Chico, California, the largest city in Butte County, where the Park Fire is burning, temperatures are expected to be in the low 90s F on Monday and Tuesday, down from last week’s low 30s F. Winds will also continue to decrease in the Park Fire area, with sustained wind speeds expected to drop to below 10 mph on Monday and down to 5 mph on Tuesday.
A weak storm is approaching the Pacific Northwest and is expected to bring some rain showers, which would be helpful since the risk of non-burning flash flooding is not as high.
The massive Park Fire, believed to have been started by arson, raged Wednesday near Chico, California, forcing thousands to flee their homes. The blaze was burning thousands of acres an hour, destroying dozens of structures and leaving a graveyard of burned trees and cars.
Noah Berger/AP
The Park Fire burned several more acres Friday near Highway 32 outside Romo in Butte County, California.
Former Chico firefighter John Maletti told CNN that despite doing everything he could to prepare, he lost his home in the Park Fire.
“I bought a bulldozer, I cleaned it up. I made sure the roof was Class A, the walls were non-combustible. I did a lot of stuff. Sprinklers, hoses. I’m a firefighter. I prepared the house to give it the best chance of survival, and it didn’t,” Maletti said. “No one could survive in this house.”
Despite the destruction of their property, Maletti said he felt lucky that all of his family members, including two dogs and a cat, were safe – something he attributes in part to a broken ankle he suffered last Monday.
“I had no problem staying. I had the hose and all my equipment, but I had a broken ankle and I had no other choice. I had to leave. And luckily, having a broken ankle probably saved my life. I would have stayed and tried to fight, but it would have been the wrong decision,” he said.
Maletti said the speed at which the fire spread was different than what he was used to.
“This was a much faster fire than I’ve ever seen,” Maletti said. “This is just an intense fire, totally different than anything I’ve ever seen.”
Tehama County residents told CNN affiliate KOVR that they were trying to escape the Park Fire by taking the only exit road out of their neighborhood, but that road was already covered in flames.
“When we saw the fire coming over the ridge, it was coming towards us, we knew this was bad, so we loaded everything into the car and headed out,” Jim Young told KOVR.
“I got on the highway and there was fire on both sides for 10 miles. It felt like I was driving through hell,” Young said.
The Park Fire is burning in Butte County, where the Camp Fire, California’s deadliest wildfire in 2018, killed more than 85 people and destroyed thousands of homes.
Bruce Hay and his brother-in-law, Christopher Appel, told KOVR that the fire forced them to evacuate their neighboring homes in the Cohasset neighborhood.
“A lot of people escaped the Camp Fire and stayed there … everything is on fire,” Appel told KOVR.
Hay said he drove through the flames to safety, but suffered burns to his arms in the process.
“I tried to get out of the car,” he said. “If I hadn’t rolled down the window to look in the rearview mirror, I wouldn’t have been burned. I was in the middle of the car, trying to put it in reverse.”
More than 17,000 people evacuated in Jasper, Alberta
Jasper, a popular tourist destination in the middle of Alberta’s Jasper National Park, suffered widespread damage from a wildfire that burned just under 90,000 acres.
Jose Tilney, deputy director of Alberta Emergency Management, said Sunday afternoon that parks remain closed and more than 17,000 people are still under evacuation orders.
The Jasper Wildlife Complex fire has destroyed about 40 percent of all buildings in the city, according to data released Saturday by the City of Jasper.
The Jasper Rapid Visual Damage Assessment reported that of the town’s 1,113 buildings, 410 were destroyed and 10 had visible damage.
Parks Canada said the fire “remains out of control and is expected to become more active as temperatures rise over the next few days.”
