Firefighters hope cooler temperatures will slow the growth of the park fire

Updated at 1:00pm Saturday

Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in Plumas County over the Gold Complex Fire and in Butte and Tehama Counties over the Park Fire. The Park Fire has burned more than 348,370 acres north of Chico since Wednesday, making it the seventh-largest wildfire in California history.

Fortunately, today and tomorrow may bring some relief for firefighters.

“The fire conditions are definitely not as critical as they were yesterday and the day before,” said Bill Rausch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, adding that temperatures should be 15 to 20 degrees cooler, winds calmer and humidity 20 to 30 percent higher. “The conditions are much better there as far as temperature, humidity and wind.” He said that will continue for the next few days.

Smoke from the fire will mostly spread north, with most of the smoke concentrated in the northern part of the Sacramento Valley. However, Rausch added that people should be aware of the smoke and take precautions as the winds could shift.

By today the fire had grown explosively in size.

“It’s been growing at 5,000 acres per hour since the beginning of this incident,” Cal Fire Incident Commander Billy See said during a briefing Saturday morning. “We’re looking at almost 8 square miles per hour.”

“It’s really unbelievable how fast it’s grown,” Cal Fire public information officer Rick Carhart told KQED. He said that with the change in weather, firefighters are starting to slow the spread of the fire. But the fire can still behave erratically.

“That giant cloud that the fire creates, that’s a pyrocumulus cloud, which is essentially the fire creating its own weather,” Carhart said. “When the fire creates its own weather, it’s all unpredictable.”

“One of the things that our unit chief here in Butte has really emphasized is the cooperation that we’ve gotten from the residents,” Carhart said. “Defensible space is really becoming a thing now.”

Carhart added that some areas in the Cohasset and Forest Ranch regions have not seen fire activity in decades.

“If you haven’t had any fires for 20 years, that’s a lot of brush,” he said.

On Friday, the fire crossed Highway 36, impacting several small communities. Cal Fire’s Jed Gaines described how they had to pull teams of firefighters out of hotels to “spur them on” to maintain lines in the area, which meant some teams had to pull double shifts.

Evacuation orders are in effect for communities north of Chico. The fire has moved north of Highway 36 and evacuation orders have been issued for areas in eastern Shasta County up to Highway 44 and Shingletown. In total, thousands of people are affected by evacuation orders, many of whom were affected by earlier fires.

On X, formerly Twitter, Butte County posted: “Seeing the sky filled with smoke is impacting this community. The fact that this has caused people to evacuate who have been evacuated many times before is devastating. Please do not hesitate to contact the Butte County Behavioral Health Access Line if you need assistance: 530-891-2810.”

More than 130 buildings have been burned, and this number is likely to increase.

Information about evacuation shelters and animal shelters

Maps of evacuation zones:

Shelters in Butte, Tehama and Shasta Counties:

• Shasta County: Bella Vista Elementary School Evacuation Shelter, 22661 Old Alturas Rd, Bella Vista, CA 96008.
• Evacuation shelter at the Butte County Fairgrounds, 199 East Hazel Street, Gridley, Butte County.
• Butte County: Neighborhood Church Evacuation Shelter, 2801 Notre Dame Blvd Chico, CA 95928
• Tehama County: Red Cross Los Molinos Vet’s Hall Evacuation Shelter, 7980 Sherwood Blvd, Los Molinos, CA 96055.
• Tehama County Evacuation Resource Center, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 510 Jefferson St. Red Bluff, CA 96080 Saturday: 9am-6pm & Sunday: 11am-6pm
• Butte County: North Valley Animal Disaster Group Small Animal Shelter, 2279 Del Oro Ave, Oroville, CA 95965 8am-9pm No waterfowl or chickens allowed. 530-895-0000
• Tehama County Small Animal Shelter, 22005 Gilmore Ranch Road, Red Bluff, CA 96080 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
• Butte County: Camelot Equestrian Park, Large Animal Shelter, 1985 Clark Road, Oroville, CA 95966.
• Tehama County: Ridgeway Park Large Animal Shelter, 19725 Ridge Road, Red Bluff, CA 96080 7:00am–9:00pm Self-service, provide your own set-up and feed. Ridgeway has open space, an arena, and space for people to bring panels to set up livestock sites.
• Tehama County: Corning Rodeo Grounds at Estill C. Clark Park Large Animal Shelter, 103 E Fig Lane, Corning, CA 96021. Self-service, provide your own setup and food. Power and water are available. Use the east gate on the road on Fig Lane to access the site, the gate is closed but not locked.
• Redding Rodeo Grounds, Large Animal Shelter, 715 Auditorium Dr, Redding, CA 96001.

This message will be updated throughout the day.

KQED’s Natalia V Navarro and Katherine Monahan contributed to this report.