Oroville, California.- Firefighters lined roads to prevent flames from reaching homes as helicopters dropped water on a growing wildfire Wednesday in Northern California that has forced the evacuation of at least 26,000 people as the state sweltered under extreme heat.
The Thompson Fire broke out before noon Tuesday about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Sacramento near the town of Oroville in Butte County and has burned more than 1,200 acres (1,200 hectares) since it began Tuesday, according to official data.
The crash emitted a huge plume of smoke that could be seen from space as it grew to more than 5.5 square miles (14 square kilometers). There was no containment.
But Oroville Mayor David Pittman said there had been a “significant decrease in fire activity” by Wednesday afternoon, and he was hopeful that some residents would soon be able to return home. The fire’s progress had stopped along the southern edge, and firefighters working in steep terrain were trying to build containment lines on the north side.
“On the north side, the topography poses real problems,” Pittman explained.
More than a dozen other fires, most of them small, were burning across the state, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. A new blaze Wednesday afternoon prompted a small number of evacuations in densely populated Simi Valley, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The state’s largest fire, the Basin Fire, covered nearly 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County and was 26 percent contained.
In Oroville, a state of emergency was declared Tuesday night and evacuation centers were set up. The evacuation zone was expanded Wednesday to the foothills and rural areas beyond the city, home to about 20,000 people. With the Fourth of July in mind, officials also warned that fireworks are banned in many places, including most of Butte County.
There was no immediate official report on property losses. An Associated Press photographer saw the fire burning three adjacent suburban-style homes in Oroville.
The fire ignited sprigs of grass sticking out from the concrete edges of Lake Oroville, while gusty winds lifted American flags flanking a bend in the state’s second-largest reservoir and the nation’s tallest dam.
Residents stayed on hillsides overnight, watching the orange glow as planes dropped water drops to stop the fire from spreading. A crew of more than a dozen firefighters saved one home as goats and other farm animals ran for safety.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. At the time of the eruption, a red alert was in effect for critical weather conditions, including gusty northerly winds and low humidity levels.
Warnings were expected to remain in effect until 8 p.m. Wednesday, said Garrett Sjolund, chief of Cal Fire’s Butte County unit.
“The conditions we have in our county this summer are very different than what we have experienced the last two summers,” Sjolund said in an online briefing. “The fuels are very dense, the brush is dry. And as you can see, any wind will move a fire very quickly.”
The conditions forced Pacific Gas & Electric to implement public safety power shutoffs in some Northern California counties to prevent fires caused by downed or damaged power lines.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures above 37.8 degrees Celsius were forecast for Wednesday. The heat was expected to continue into next week.
Authorities have warned of legal consequences for any illegal use of fireworks during the July 4 holiday.
“Don’t be an idiot and start a fire and create more problems for us,” said Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea. “No one in the community is going to want that. And we certainly don’t want this.”
The governor’s office announced late Tuesday that federal funding had been approved to assist with firefighting efforts. Gov. Gavin Newsom this week activated the State Operations Center to coordinate California’s response, dispatch mutual aid and support communities in their response to wildfire threats and excessive heat.
In Southern California, Joshua Tree National Park officials on Wednesday closed Covington Flats, an area with most of the park’s significant Joshua tree populations, due to extreme fire risk after spring rains led to abundant grass that has now dried out. A fire in June 2023 burned 4.14 square kilometers of Joshua trees and desert tortoise habitat.
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