Arson Suspect Arrested in Park Fire Near Chico, California's Largest This Year

Updated 6:15 p.m. Thursday

A man was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of starting a rapidly growing wildfire in Butte and Tehama counties that has forced more than 3,500 people to evacuate their homes.

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey identified the suspect on Thursday afternoon as Ronnie Dean Stout II, 42, of Chico. Ramsey said Stout has two prior strikes. The first one was a felony conviction in 2001 for child molestation in Butte County. The second one was a 2002 felony conviction for robbery with great bodily injury. This was out of Kern County, Ramsey said.

Since igniting Wednesday afternoon off Upper Park Road in Bidwell Park near Chico, the Park Fire has already burned nearly 124,949 acres — 190 square miles — as of 6 p.m. Thursday to become California’s largest wildfire of the year. Containment is listed at 3%.

Shortly before 3 p.m. Wednesday, Stout was seen pushing a burning car into a gully in upper Bidwell Park, according to the Butte County district attorney’s office. After the car went 60 feet down an embankment, Stout was seen leaving the area of the quickly spreading fire by trying to blend in with other people.

Cal Fire arson investigators arrested Stout on Thursday morning and held him without bail in Butte County Jail.

The fire started in an area of dry grass and oak woodland, where it spread quickly amid winds and high overnight temperatures. Recent weather has left grass and brush extraordinarily dry.

“It’s exhibiting extreme and exotic fire behavior, very rapid rates of spread among moderate winds, but record dry vegetation conditions following this record heat wave that we’ve experienced in this part of the state,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, on Thursday.

Winds from the south have pushed the fire to the north, moving away from Chico and so far avoiding heavily populated areas. Swain predicts the fire could burn for weeks — or even months.

“It’s looking pretty bad, to be quite honest. The only good news is that as you go north and east from here, it’s a while before you hit any population centers,” Swain said. “But it is possible that this thing becomes so big that it does start to hit some of the population centers later on.” 

It is burning in an area where fires like the Camp and Dixie fires have already impacted people.

“This is sort of filling in the gaps up in northeastern California in places that have not burned in recent years,” Swain said. “So this thing is going full-steam ahead. It’s still moving as fast as it ever was.”

The fire plume is creating its own weather and acting like a thunderstorm, Swain added, with radar showing possible fire whirls, an erratic and dangerous type of fire behavior.

“This is a fire that is likely going to become several times larger than it currently is, at least, meaning that it will likely be a several hundred-thousand-acre fire,” Swain said. “I don’t really see how that won’t happen.”

Cal Fire is leading the response to the blaze, which has prompted a large call for resources due to its size and intensity. Already, 1,153 personnel and more than 150 engines have been assigned to the fire.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that California has secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will help cover the costs of the fire response.

“Fire personnel are currently focusing on evacuations and structure defense while concurrently building direct containment lines utilizing bulldozers, fire crews and fire engines,” Cal Fire said.

The National Weather Service in Sacramento said the peak intensity of the fire appeared to come in the early hours of Thursday.

“Unfortunately, any respite is likely to be brief [through early this morning] as southerly winds will increase again by mid/late morning as daytime heating leads to increased mixing,” the weather service said.

Evacuations have been ordered in both Butte and Tehama counties.

Officials have established Neighborhood Church as an evacuation shelter at 2801 Notre Dame Blvd., in Chico, and animal shelters in Oroville at 2279 Del Oro and Camelot Equestrian Park at 1985 Clark Road. A spokesperson at the shelter said about 40 people have checked in and are being cared for by American Red Cross staff.

The location of the fire start is less than 10 miles west of the town of Paradise, the site of the deadliest fire in California history.

KQED’s Jared Servantez and Christopher Alam contributed to this report.