California’s Park Wildfire has grown to over 600 square miles: Fifth largest fire in California history

Park-Fire-REUTERS-Fred-Greaves A vehicle passes firefighters standing by the road as the Park Fire burns, near Jonesville, California, U.S., July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Fred Greaves

Luke 21:25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves

Important Takeaways:

  • The largest wildfire in the U.S. swelled to over 600 square miles (1,550 square kms) on Tuesday night, bigger than the city of Los Angeles, fire officials in California said, as thousands of firefighters battled the blaze in a wilderness area north of Sacramento.
  • More than 5,500 firefighters from across California and other states were working around the clock to douse the Park Fire, burning in the state’s Central Valley, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Sacramento, the capital.
  • The fire grew to 386,764 acres (156,517 hectares), becoming the fifth largest wildfire in Californian history, officials said.
  • The Park Fire on Tuesday surpassed the size of the 2020 Creek Fire in Fresno County, which burned almost 380,000 acres (153,780 hectares), fire officials said. But it is still smaller than the state’s largest fire on record, the August Complex fire of 2020, which burned more than 1 million acres (404,685 hectares) in seven counties in northern California.
  • The Park Fire – fueled by dry grass, brush and timber – is fast-moving, said Fire Capt. Dan Collins of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection or Cal Fire.
  • “This fire has lots of fuel that is receptive to burning, and it’s hard to get to,” he said. “Our fire line is 260 miles (673 kms) around, that’s the size of three Lake Tahoes. It can take two-three hours to get personnel in there over the terrain.”
  • The National weather service says no rain is in sight this week, and hot and extremely dry weather will prevail, he said.
  • Temperatures will reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8°C) on Wednesday and highs could hover at that level until next Monday, he said, with relative humidity dropping to as low as 7%.

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