BUTTE COUNTY — A fire that began near Upper Park Road in Bidwell Park quickly grew into a 1,500-acre-plus inferno Wednesday afternoon and evening, leading to several mandatory evacuation orders and threatening the community of Richardson Springs and the surrounding area.
At 10:15 p.m., Cal Fire released another update saying the fire had grown to 6,465 acres. Flames were visible at the west end of the Sacramento Valley more than 30 miles away.
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The fire broke out near Upper Park Road in Bidwell Park just before 3 p.m. Initially reported as five acres, the blaze — pushed by a south wind with gusts up to 24 miles per hour — had spread to 1,000 acres by 5:54 p.m. and was reported at 1,500 acres less than an hour later. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation orders for eight zones north of Bidwell Park in areas such as Richardson Springs; as of 6:30 p.m., evacuation orders were in place for zones 250, 251, 252, 253, 312, 313, 317, and 318.
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Evacuation warnings in Tehama County were issued for zones 736, 856, 858, 882 and 882B.
According to the Watch Duty app, the fire is “established and wind-driven.”
Just after 7 p.m., the Chico Police Department closed northbound traffic at Cohasset and Eaton roads and asked residents to please avoid the area.
On its Facebook page, Cal Fire-Butte County said it had activated its fire information hotline and local residents can dial 211 for information. People from outside of Butte County can dial 1-866-916-3566. An updated list of evacuation warnings and orders is available on the Butte County Sheriff website.
The fire was initially described in the app as being a vegetation fire with a moderate rate of spread and was heading uphill into the canyon. Later reports said the fire had crested the hill and was backing down. It had reached 500 acres at 5 p.m.
Reached just before 10 p.m. Wednesday, Rick Carhart, public information officer for Cal Fire, said “a lot of crews” would be out all night, including three night-capable helicopters — two dropping water and a third for coordination.
Carhart said 24 engines, six hand crews, six water tenders, four bulldozers, one air attack, four air tankers and five helicopters were battling the fire “from all over northern California.”
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Earlier Wednesday, around 3 p.m., the first big fire of the day — the Scrapyard Fire in Oroville –was still burning. Carhart said crews were focused on keeping it from spreading to other areas of the Feather River Industrial Complex.
“We’re not putting our suits on and going into black smoke to get it, we’re just fighting it with water to make sure the fire doesn’t spread to any structures in the complex,” Carhart said.
Mid-afternoon on Highway 70, it smelled like burning rubber and metal near the scene of a fire. One ladder truck had its ladder extended, and a firefighter scaled it and was shooting water down onto the blaze.
Last week, a pile of debris caught fire at Chico Scrap Metal, and a fire burned overnight Saturday at the Neal Road Landfill.
E-R editor Mike Wolcott contributed to this report.
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