Crews battle wildfires across the US West and fight to hold containment lines
Wildfires across the western United States and Canada have put millions of people under air quality alerts, as thousands of firefighters battle the flames, including the largest wildfire in California this year
FOREST RANCH, Calif. (AP) — Wildfires across the western United States and Canada put millions of people under air quality alerts on Sunday as thousands of firefighters battled the flames, including the largest wildfire in California this year.
The so-called Park Fire had scorched an area greater than the size of Los Angeles as of Sunday, darkening the sky with smoke and contributing poor air quality to a large swath of the northwestern U.S. and western Canada. The blaze spanned more than 562 square miles (1,455 square kilometers) of inland Northern California.
Firefighters were helped by cooler temperatures and more humidity on Saturday and made some progress, increasing containment from zero to 12%. The fire has drawn comparisons to the 2018 Camp Fire that tore through the nearby community of Paradise, killing 85 people and torching 11,000 homes.
Paradise and several other Butte County communities were under an evacuation warning Sunday. However, Cal Fire operations section chief Jeremy Pierce had some good news for the area, saying around midday that the Park Fire's southernmost front, which is closest to Paradise, was “looking really good,” with crews focusing on extinguishing any remaining hot spots and removing other hazards over the next three days. He also said they don't expect it to move farther into Chico, a city of about 100,000 people just west of Paradise.
