Original Post Park Fire 7-25-24
Another bad fire ignited not too far from me yesterday afternoon, the Park Fire, in the lower foothills just on the outskirts of the city of Chico, California (about 35 miles from me). It was very hot yesterday, mid-to-high 100's, with wind gusts of 25 - 30 mph - perfect conditions for the start of a major fire.
Weather over the fire area today is predicted to be sunny and hot, with a high near 102. South southeast wind 6 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Not good.
Rumor has it that the fire was started by a man driving his already burning vehicle off the road into dry brush in Bidwell Park. Many of you in other parts of the country might think of "park" as a neatly manicured green square. No so for a "park" here in many parts of arid California. Bidwell Park is actually a bit of natural wildlands (think steep rocky gullies, tall dead grasses, chaparral, dry brush and native oak trees) located slightly within the city of Chico, and extending on into the lower foothills.
Bidwell Park
This fire is not too far from the town of Paradise, which burned to the ground in the Camp Fire in 2018, which destroyed more than 18,000 structures, including 90% of homes, with about eighty fatalities.
This fire is looking like it has the potential to be another really bad one, and likely will be burning for a while - it has had an incredible rate of spread over the last eight hours or so. Initially starting yesterday afternoon, July 24 (around 3:00 p.m.), by about 6:00 a.m. this morning it is now being mapped at forty-five thousand acres. To put this into perspective, 45 thousand acres is about seventy square miles.
The town of Cohasset was evacuated last night, some residents being led away along dirt logging roads by local loggers, because the single road in and out of town was blocked by fire.
The photo below is from The Lookout, a great source for fire info in Northern California:
https://the-lookout.org/2024/07/25/the-park-fire-near-chico-california/
I am not having getting any smoke here, at least at the moment. Likely I will get smoke later in the day as the wind direction changes. And, unfortunately, windy conditions are persisting.
Anne