Fire officials have been quoted over the weekend as saying that Fire crews battling California’s largest wildfire this year have corralled a third of the blaze aided in part by cooler weather, but a return of triple-digit temperatures could allow it to grow.
Chris Vestal, a spokesperson for the California department of forestry and fire protection, was quoted as saying that Cooler temperatures and increased humidity gave firefighters “a great opportunity to make some good advances” on the fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
The Park fire has scorched 627 sq miles (1,623 sq km) since igniting 24 July when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. The blaze was 30% contained as of Sunday.
The huge fire has scorched an area bigger than the city of Los Angeles, which covers about 503 sq miles (1,302 sq km). It continues to burn through rugged, inaccessible and steep terrain with dense vegetation.
The fire’s push northward has also brought it toward the rugged lava rock landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic national park, which has been closed because of the threat. The inhospitable terrain remains one of the biggest challenges for firefighters.
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“The challenge with that is we can’t use our heavy machinery like bulldozers to go through and cut a line right through it,” Vestal said. “On top of that, we have to put human beings, our hand crews, in to remove those fuels and some of that terrain is not really the greatest for people that are hiking so it takes a long time and extremely hard work,”.
Veal said that the fire has destroyed at least 572 structures and damaged 52 others. At least 2,700 people in Butte and Tehama counties remain under evacuation orders.
After days of smoky skies, clear skies Sunday allowed firefighters to deploy helicopters and other aircraft to aid in the fight against the blaze as temperatures reached above 100F (about 38C).
“The fire is in a good place from the weather conditions we had the last couple of days but we still have to worry about the weather that we have and the conditions that are going to be present now for about the next five or six days,” Veal said.
The fire in northern California is one of 85 large blazes burning across the west.
In Colorado, firefighters were making progress Sunday against three major fires burning near heavily populated areas north and south of Denver. Many residents evacuated by the fires have been allowed to go back home.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
