A California man under arrest Thursday was accused of starting the state’s largest wildlife of the year by pushing a burning car into a gully as other fires scorched the Pacific Northwest.
Haze hangs in the air over downtown Denver, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Fires burning in California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and other western states, as well as Canada, have filled the skies in regions of the western U.S. with smoke and haze, forcing some affected areas to declare air quality alerts or advisories.
Thomas Peipert / AP
Flames from the fire the suspect is accused of starting exploded into what is now the Park Fire, which has burned more than 70 square miles near the city of Chico. Evacuations were ordered in Butte and Tehama counties, with the blaze only 3% contained early Thursday.
California authorities did not immediately name the man they arrested.
As evacuations continued in California, some Oregon residents were cleared to return home after a thunderstorm dropped welcome rain but also potentially dangerous lightning on the biggest active blaze in the United States. Another fast-moving wildfire forced thousands to abandon a town in Canada.
In eastern Oregon, evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for the city of Huntington, population 500, after a severe thunderstorm late Wednesday brought some rain and cooler temperatures to the nearly 630 square miles burned by the Durkee Fire – the nation’s biggest – and another nearby blaze. Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash called the rain a “godsend,” but residents were warned to be ready to go again at a moment’s notice.
In northern California, fire personnel were focusing on evacuations and defending structures while using bulldozers to build containment lines ahead of the Park Fire. No deaths or damage to structures had been reported, CAL FIRE/ Butte County Fire Department said in a late Wednesday update.
A fire in southern California was much smaller, but moving fast and threatening homes.
Evacuation orders were in effect Wednesday night in San Diego County after a wildfire began to spread fast near the San Diego and Riverside county line. Fire officials say the Grove Fire was spreading southeast through steep and challenging terrain. The fire grew to 1.3 square miles within a few hours but was 5% contained just before 8 p.m., Cal Fire said on the social media platform X.
More than two dozen new fires started in Montana on Wednesday and early Thursday, state officials said. Hurricane-force winds carried strong thunderstorms into western Montana, toppling trees, downing power lines and damaging gas lines in the Missoula area. A fire warning was in effect in central Montana due to high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds. An extreme heat warning east of the storm front said temperatures could soar up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the Canadian Rockies’ largest national park, a fast-moving wildfire this week hit the town of Jasper, forcing thousands to flee and causing significant damage in the World Heritage Site. That blaze, as well as those in the western United States, have forced some areas to declare air quality alerts or advisories as skies filled with smoke and haze.
Patrick Nauman, the owner of Weiser Classic Candy in the small town of Weiser, Idaho, near the Oregon border, said driving into town Wednesday morning was “like driving into a fog bank, because it’s so thick and low to the road.”
Nauman’s shop is on the main intersection in town and is typically a popular spot to stop for lunch or a sugar fix, but customer traffic has dropped by half in the past few days as thick smoke and triple-digit temperatures dogged the region.
“Yesterday you could smell it, taste it, it just kind of hung in the back of your throat,” Nauman said of the smoke.
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Associated Press writers Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington; Martha Bellisle in Seattle; Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon; and Amy Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed to this report.