BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Rapidly growing wildfires prompted evacuations in Northern and Southern California on Thursday, while some Oregon residents were cleared to return home after a thunderstorm dropped welcome rain but also potentially dangerous lightning on the largest active blaze in the United States. Another fast-moving wildfire forced thousands to abandon a town in Canada.
Evacuations were ordered in California’s Butte and Tehama counties as crews battled a fire reported near Chico just before 3 p.m. Wednesday. The blaze, dubbed the Park Fire, quickly spread from about 10 square miles (26 square kilometers) to more than 70 square miles (180 square kilometers) and was only 3% contained early Thursday, according to CAL FIRE. The cause was under investigation.
In eastern Oregon, evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for the city of Huntington, population 500, after a severe thunderstorm late Wednesday brought some rain and cooler temperatures to the nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers) burned by the Durkee Fire – the nation’s biggest – and another nearby blaze. Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash called the rain a “godsend,” but residents were warned to be ready to go again at a moment’s notice.
Officials remain concerned that lightning from the storm — which brought wind gusts of up to 75 mph — could spark new blazes. More than 2,800 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were detected across southeast Oregon and Idaho on Wednesday alone, the National Weather Service in Boise said Thursday.
Climate change is increasing the frequency of wildfires sparked by lightning across the Pacific Northwest and western Canada as the region endures recording-breaking heat, with many triple-digit days and bone-dry conditions. Idaho Power has for the first time done a pre-emptive power outage, shutting off electricity to thousands of customers to prevent new fire starts and other power grid issues from wires downed by the high winds, the utility said.
The storms are bringing cooler air, but the wind could stoke more fires, warned Mike Cantin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boise.
“Every little spark could get out of hand very easily. It could be a really hazardous situation very fast,” Cantin said. “Don’t light anything on fire, and be very careful around grass.”
The Durkee Fire was burning near the Oregon-Idaho state line, shutting down a stretch of Interstate 84 and leaving ranchers in the largely rural area fighting to save their cattle and grasslands their herds rely upon for food.
The fire approached Alison Oszman’s home in Rye Valley, a small ranching area north of Huntington, last week, but they were able to protect their property with the help of Bureau of Land Management firefighters and neighbors, using small tanker trucks and shovels. They used a small bulldozer to keep it away from the house, she said.
Since their property was already burned and safe, her neighbor moved his horses and cattle over as the fire moved toward his ranch, she said. On Wednesday night, Oszman went to check his property and found that the fire had come down a steep hillside and threatened his home.
“I went and parked our truck out in the field just in case those big trees by his house caught fire,” she said. “I was making sure sparks didn’t land in the dirt or the dry grass. But as the fire passed his house, it started raining.” The rain helped the firefighters get on top of the blaze.
“It was pretty scary but everything seemed to fall into place,” she said. “Everybody helped everybody. It was actually pretty amazing for how crummy it really was.”
In northern California, fire personnel were focusing on evacuations and defending structures while using bulldozers to build containment lines ahead of the Park Fire, which burned more than 70 square miles (180 square kilometers) near Chico. No deaths or damage to structures had been reported, CAL FIRE/ Butte County Fire Department said in a late Wednesday update.
A fire in southern California was much smaller, but moving fast and threatening homes.
Evacuation orders were in effect Wednesday night in San Diego County after a wildfire began to spread fast near the San Diego and Riverside county line. Fire officials say the Grove Fire was spreading southeast through steep and challenging terrain. The fire grew to 1.3 square miles (3.4 square kilometers) within a few hours but was 5% contained just before 8 p.m., Cal Fire said on the social media platform X.
More than two dozen new fires started in Montana on Wednesday and early Thursday, state officials said. Hurricane-force winds carried strong thunderstorms into western Montana, toppling trees, downing power lines and damaging gas lines in the Missoula area. A fire warning was in effect in central Montana due to high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds. An extreme heat warning east of the storm front said temperatures could soar up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius).
In the Canadian Rockies’ largest national park, a fast-moving wildfire this week hit the town of Jasper, forcing thousands to flee and causing significant damage in the World Heritage Site. That blaze, as well as those in the western United States, have forced some areas to declare air quality alerts or advisories as skies filled with smoke and haze.
Patrick Nauman, the owner of Weiser Classic Candy in the small town of Weiser, Idaho, near the Oregon border, said driving into town Wednesday morning was “like driving into a fog bank, because it’s so thick and low to the road.”
Nauman’s shop is on the main intersection in town and is typically a popular spot to stop for lunch or a sugar fix, but customer traffic has dropped by half in the past few days as thick smoke and triple-digit temperatures dogged the region.
“Yesterday you could smell it, taste it, it just kind of hung in the back of your throat,” Nauman said of the smoke.
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Associated Press writers Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington; Martha Bellisle in Seattle, Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, and Amy Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed to this report.
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