The Park Fire, now the fifth-largest wildfire in California’s modern history, has destroyed over 430 homes and other buildings in Butte and Tehama counties, and damaged another 42 structures, according to data released by Cal Fire on Wednesday.
Cal Fire’s new damage assessment includes a map (now password protected…) of the structures damaged or destroyed by the fire, offering the first detailed look into the fire’s aftermath in the residential areas it has burned through. Damage inspectors had only completed 75% of their scheduled assessments by Wednesday afternoon, Cal Fire said, so the number of damaged and destroyed buildings could climb.
The Park Fire started in Chico’s Bidwell Park on July 24. Authorities have arrested a man accused of arson after he was allegedly seen pushing a burning car into a gulley, which ignited the fire.
The Park Fire has burned across 389,791 acres of land in Northern California’s Butte, Plumas, Tehama and Shasta counties. It was 18% contained on Wednesday, according to Cal Fire.
Since California began keeping detailed wildfire records in the 1930s, only four fires have outmatched the Park Fire in size, according to Cal Fire data:
- The 2020 August Complex: 1,032,648 acres
- The 2021 Dixie Fire: 963,309 acres
- The 2018 Mendocino Complex: 459,123 acres
- The 2020 SCU Lightning Complex: 396,625 acres
So far in 2024, the Park and other wildfires have burned 763,425 acres in California in total, according to Cal Fire.
Mixed Fire Effects
Not all of the land within the Park Fire’s footprint has been severely scorched. Some areas within the fire’s 260 mile perimeter haven’t burned at all. Fires typically have a variety of effects as they move across landscapes, depending on weather and geographic features like slope, fuel conditions, fire history and land management. Also, the majority of the vegetation in the grassland and brush areas of the burn is adapted to fire. As the fire has moved into conifer forests, damage has been more severe.
Webcams across the burned landscape provide a snapshot into some of the immediate fire effects. Many trees around the cameras appear to have survived the fire, and many oak trees which appear to be killed will resprout new growth from their crowns.
We should be getting new Sentinel satellite data from a regular (5-day) orbit tomorrow by the end of the day. These images are great for seeing large-scale patterns in burn severity. See our post of last orbit’s imagery on 7/27/24, here.