At least 13,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes Wednesday as wildfires in Northern California continued to spread and another day of extreme heat was expected.
The Thompson Fire broke out before noon Tuesday about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north of Sacramento in and around the Butte County town of Oroville. It sent out a nearly 4.7-square-mile (12.1-square-kilometer) plume of smoke that could be seen from space Wednesday morning.
A state of emergency was declared Tuesday evening in the city of about 20,000 people, and evacuation centers were set up.
The fire ignited blades of grass growing on the concrete edges of Lake Oroville as gusts lifted American flags lining a bend of the state’s second-largest reservoir and the nation’s tallest dam.
There were no immediate official reports of material losses.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Warnings
Warnings for critical fire weather conditions, including gusty northerly winds and low humidity levels, were in effect at the time the fire broke out.
Those warnings are expected to remain in effect until 8 p.m. Wednesday, said Garret Sjolund, Butte County unit chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“The conditions in our county this summer are very different than what we have experienced over the last two summers,” the chief said during an online briefing.
“The fuels are very dense, the brush is dry. And as you can see, any wind will put out a fire very quickly.”
These conditions have led Pacific Gas & Electric to implement targeted public safety power shutoffs in parts of some Northern California counties to prevent fires from being started by downed or damaged wires.
Even higher temperatures, above 37.8 degrees Celsius, were forecast for Wednesday, the National Weather Service said. The warm conditions are expected to continue into next week.
Fireworks banned on July 4th
With July 4 in mind, officials also warned that fireworks were banned in many places, including most of Butte County.
Authorities have warned of all legal consequences for any illegal use of fireworks during the Independence Day holiday.
“Don’t be stupid and start a fire and create more problems for us,” Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea warned. “No one in the community wants that. And we certainly don’t want that.”
The governor’s office announced Tuesday night that federal funding has been approved to support firefighting efforts. Gov. Gavin Newsom this week established the state operations center to coordinate California’s firefighting efforts, dispatch aid and support communities as they respond to the threats of wildfires and excessive heat.
More than a dozen other fires, mostly small, were active in California, according to Cal Fire. The largest, the Basin Fire, covered nearly 22 square miles (57 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County and was 26% contained.
In Southern California, Joshua Tree National Park officials on Wednesday closed Covington Flats, an area home to most of the park’s significant Joshua tree populations, due to extreme fire risk after spring rains washed away abundant grass that has now dried out. A June 2023 fire burned 1.65 square miles (4.14 square kilometers) of Joshua trees and desert tortoise habitat.