Massive Park Fire Is on the Verge of Becoming 4th Largest in California History

The massive Park Fire burning north of Chico, one of the largest in California’s history, has destroyed at least 483 structures, Cal Fire said Thursday as damage assessment crews continue to comb through the area.

Hundreds of homes are among the destruction. The assessments, which are 85% complete, also found 47 damaged structures.

Although the blaze grew only slightly overnight, to 392,480 acres, the big concern looking ahead is weather — a heat wave is forecast to bring hotter, drier conditions into the weekend.

With temperatures rising into the 100s and daytime humidity levels falling below 20%, Thursday will be the first of several days with increasingly critical fire weather, Cal Fire said. Winds out of the south are expected to be drier, and the fire is likely to grow along its northern edge as gusts lead to more erratic fire behavior.

That could push the Park Fire into becoming the fourth-largest wildfire in California history if it grows by 4,000 more acres, surpassing the 396,625 acre SCU Lightning Complex Fires that burned across parts of Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties in 2020.

More than 6,000 firefighters, including help from Utah and Texas, are battling the fire as crews continue to face difficult conditions.

Firefighting aircraft “cannot always fly in all the time because of the smoke conditions,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mark Brunton said. “But where they can, they are flying; they are doing their water-dropping missions as well as retardant missions through a mobile retardant base that is established.”

The massive blaze is now burning in four counties: Tehama, Butte, Shasta and Plumas.

On its northern edge, it is encroaching on Lassen National Forest, where winds are expected to pick up Thursday, potentially stoking the well-established fire activity in the Deer Creek and Mill Creek canyons, according to Cal Fire. Those are two of just three creeks left where the threatened Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon still spawns in the wild, raising severe concerns from wildlife officials.

There is a chance of thunderstorms on Friday and Saturday, including lightning strikes.

KQED’s Keith Mizuguchi contributed to this report.