Wildfires are raging out of control in the Western United States and Canada – destroying homes, forcing evacuations and injuring residents. One inferno has reportedly destroyed the historic mining community of Havilah in Kern County, California. And in Northern California, the Park Fire has scorched more than 360,000 acres – an area larger than the city of Phoenix.
A Historic California Mining Community Up in Flames
The Borel Fire has destroyed the historic mining community of Havilah, once the original Kern County seat that was first settled in the 1800’s. There are now just a few buildings left standing, the Los Angeles Times reported. “We lost everything — it’s all gone,” resident Sean Rains told the Times on Sunday. “This whole town burned down. Multiple people, friends that I know — everybody lost everything.”
The number of homes and businesses destroyed in Havilah – population 250 – is still being assessed, fire officials said at a weekend news conference. But evacuation orders have been in effect, according to Jim Snow, one of the incident commanders.
Fueled in part by red-flag conditions – such as warm temperatures, very low humidities and strong winds – the Borel Fire exploded in growth on Thursday afternoon. It scorched 30,000 acres in a 24-hour period, Snow said. Despite 1,200 personnel assigned to the inferno, the blaze was 0% contained as of Sunday.
“Some of those edges of the fire, with rapid growth, we’re having to chase down rather than stand in front of it,” Snow said. “We have had some light injuries on the incident – a lot of heat-related injuries.” The blaze stayed active overnight Sunday into Monday, especially on ridges and slopes in the area, CalFire said in an update.
Over the weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom secured additional federal assistance to help with the ongoing firefighting effort, his office said in a news release.
Arson deemed the Cause of Massive Park Fire
The massive Park Fire – which authorities believe was caused by arson – has forced thousands of residents to flee their homes. The inferno was sparked Wednesday near Chico, California, and swallowed thousands of acres per hour, burned dozens of structures and left graveyards of burned trees and cars.
The Park Fire has now been deemed the seventh-largest wildfire in California history, torching more than 360,000 acres, or 560 square miles – an area larger than Phoenix. The fire has destroyed 100 structures and threatens thousands more, according to CalFire. It was 12% contained as of Monday morning, but evacuations warnings or orders remained in Butte, Tehama, Plumas and Shasta counties.
Retired Chico firefighter John Maretti said he lost his house in the Park Fire despite preparing as best he knew how. “I bought a bulldozer. We cleared things out. We made sure that we had a Class A roof and non-flammable walls. We did a lot,” Maretti told CNN. “We had sprinklers. We had hoses. I mean, I’m a firefighter. I set this up for maximum opportunity for the house to make it and it did not.”
“There’s just no way that anybody could have survived with this house,” Maretti said. Despite the destruction of his property, Maretti said he felt fortunate the household – including two dogs and a cat – had escaped unharmed – something he credited, in part, to breaking his ankle last Monday. “I felt very capable staying. And I have hoses, I have all sorts of equipment, but with a broken ankle, there’s just no choice. I had to leave. And fortunately, because I had the broken ankle, I probably saved my life, because I probably would have stayed and tried to fight it, which would have been the wrong decision,” he said.
Maretti said the speed at which the fire had spread wasn’t what he was used to. “This was just a lot faster fire than I’d ever seen,” Maretti said. “This is just an angry fire, and completely different than anything I’ve ever seen before.”
The Park Fire is burning in Butte County, where California’s deadliest wildfire, the Camp Fire, killed more than 85 people and destroyed thousands of homes in 2018.
President Joe Biden has directed his administration to do everything possible to support ongoing fire suppression efforts, a White House official said. Although an increase in humidity dampened fire activity early Monday morning, CalFire officials expect an increase in fire activity Monday afternoon because of southwest winds and dry vegetation.
A 42-year-old man, Ronnie Dean Stout II, has been arrested and accused of igniting the Park Fire. Stout is suspected of pushing a burning car 60 feet into a gully, spreading flames that caused the inferno, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said.
Oregon’s Durkee “Megafire” Tops 288,000 Acres, a Huge Devastation for Ranchers
On Saturday, wildfires continued to burn across the United State, with the majority concentrated in Oregon, and the largest still the Durkee Fire. Officials say it’s near 290,000 acres in size, with a perimeter of 169 miles. However, crews have made progress, and by Sunday it was 50% contained.
At the northwest corner of the megafires footprint, local landowners and ranchers are still dealing with the worst of it. Fire officials say this area remains a concern due to heavy winds and drier conditions at high elevation and a shift to a timber fuel type, as compared to the Durkee Fire’s predominant fuels to date: grass, shrubs and juniper.
“I can only it sum up as a huge devastation,” said Ty Sharp, the ranch manager for Three Valleys Ranch. “It really is. We lost lots of grazing land. We can’t put cows on for probably two or three years. Millions of feet in timber, and many, many miles of fence, which is all expensive to rebuild and it takes time to grow back.”
His ranch, nestled in the mountains, is made up of tens of thousands of acres and about 1,000 cattle. “We were actually looking at adding more cattle, but now, we have to pull back,” he said. Sharp and his team have equipment to battle the flames, but it can only do so much. “It’s been a lot of locals trying to fight it,” he explained, “and again, it’s jumping our dozer lines and our little pumper trucks. They’re like squirt guns.”
On day 10 of the megafire, nearly 600 firefighters were working on suppression, confident they’ll soon contain the fire along Interstate 84.
Locals say they’re grateful for these resources, but they’ll also continue keeping an eye out for their land and for their neighbors. “They dropped everything and came to help,” Sharp said, “Hopefully, I can return the favor sometime, maybe at a different way. No more fires.”
Oregon has reached a total of 1,017,474 acres burned, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. This year, 2024, is rapidly catching up to, and in some cases, surpassing much of the year-by-year average of wildfires and acres burned.
Around 17,000 evacuated due to wildfire in Jasper, Alberta
Jasper, a popular tourist town in the middle of Alberta’s Jasper National Park, has suffered widespread destruction due to the Jasper Wildlife Complex Fire, which has scorched nearly 80,000 acres. Almost 40% of all structures in the city have been destroyed by the blaze, according to data released Saturday by the Municipality of Jasper.
Of the 1,113 structures in the town, 410 were reported destroyed, and 10 sustained visible damage, the Jasper Rapid Visual Damage Assessment said. But critical infrastructure “has been protected,” Stephen Carr, field operations director at the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said at a Monday afternoon news conference.
While the fire remains out of control in the park, firefighters have extinguished all structural hot spots within the town of Jasper, according to Carr. Around 17,000 people have evacuated from Jasper, he said.
Across Alberta’s forest protection area, a total of 124 fires are still burning as of Monday afternoon, according to Alberta Wildfire Public Information Officer Melissa Story. Of those, 25 are out of control, 47 are “being held,” and 52 are under control.
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