Massive Park Fire Near Chico Destroys 134 Structures as It Burns Out of Control

Updated 12:10 p.m. Friday

California’s largest wildfire of the year has destroyed 134 structures as it burns out of control just north of Chico, state fire officials said Friday morning.

The Park Fire has pushed some 4,000 people from their homes and charred more than 164,280 acres since it ignited Wednesday afternoon.

Overnight, the fire exploded in size by about 40,000 acres since Thursday’s last update from Cal Fire, tearing through grass, brush, timber and dead vegetation in difficult terrain for firefighters. Containment, which was hovering around 3% on Thursday, dropped to zero.

“It’s burning in inaccessible areas, in areas with little to no fire history, and into the Ishi Wilderness,” Cal Fire Capt. Dan Collins, a public information officer on the Park Fire, said Friday. “So couple that with heavy fuel loads, both dead and live … that’s why the fire grew exponentially overnight.”

The rural communities of Cohasset and Forest Ranch along Highway 32, which have been ordered to evacuate, are under threat.

Thursday’s firefight appeared to focus on trying to prevent the blaze from sweeping into Cohasset, where several hundred homes are dispersed along a ridge about 10 miles northeast of Chico. Cohasset Road, the only paved road in or out of the woodland community, was overrun by the fire Wednesday evening, but evacuees were guided to safety by firefighters and Sierra Pacific lumber workers who drove over remote logging roads to get them to Highway 32.

George Sikorski, 81, was one of those evacuees. He has lived in Cohasset for more than 30 years.

“There have been a number of fires in this particular area. Most of them have been relatively small, and they got on them really quickly,” he said. “This one, they got on quickly, but it was just too much.”

He said he’s been on edge all summer amid high fire danger conditions as vegetation that flourished during excessive rain this past winter dries out.

“Everything is drier this year, and the fire spread rapidly,” he said.

David Eleazer, 63, lives in the tree line above where the fire started to spread Wednesday evening.

“The power went out. Cellphone went out. Everything went out. I was up there all night with no information. So I just started packing,” he said.

When he left Thursday morning, he couldn’t find his Rottweilers.

“I don’t know what happened,” he said. “They got confused and took off.”

Julie Phillips, 55, said the fire moved quickly on Cohasset.

“It was real. It was very, very fast. We had no chance really to get anything so we got our dogs, which meant everything to us,” she said Friday at an evacuation center set up at Neighborhood Church of Chico.

As she was evacuating, she said, her car ran out of gas, forcing her to roll down the mountain road until she got to a flat, where a friend passed by.

“He literally turned around and chained us up and brought us to Eaton Avenue gas station so that we would make it, you know, so people come together during things like this,” Phillips said. “I’m just thankful to be here and have a place to go, because I have nowhere now.”

The fire is burning just a few miles from the town of Paradise, parts of which are under evacuation warnings. Much of the town was destroyed in the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California history.

Two people with minor injuries have been treated and released by firefighters, authorities said in a press conference on Thursday night.

Crews will face difficult conditions as they battle the fire Friday, according to forecasts. The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning through Friday night, as temperatures are expected to exceed 100 degrees in some areas, and relative humidity is quite low.

“With these sorts of conditions, it is possible for rapid spread of any fires,” said NWS Sacramento meteorologist Sara Purdue.

Conditions are expected to improve into the weekend, Purdue said.

Arson investigators believe the blaze was started by a man who pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico’s upper Bidwell Park.

Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico, was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of arson and is being held without bail in Butte County Jail. He has two prior felony convictions for child molestation in 2001 and robbery with great bodily injury in 2002, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said.

KQED’s Ezra David Romero and Beth LaBerge contributed to this report. This is a developing story and it will be updated.