With California sweltering under a week-long heat wave, firefighters on Wednesday battled the most dramatic and potentially dangerous fire of the year so far, as flames from the Thompson Fire spread around Oroville Dam, the tallest dam in the United States, even at one point burning on the dam itself.
Authorities evacuated more than 28,000 people from Oroville and its surrounding communities in Butte County, as the fire spread to 3,560 acres with no containment and temperatures hit 109 degrees.
“They made good progress last night,” said Robert Carvalho, a battalion chief with Cal Fire, the state’s main firefighting agency. “But the humidity is low. Temperatures are very high. It’s windy. And there’s steep terrain. That makes it hard to put the fire out. We have air and ground resources working hard.”
More than 1,400 firefighters battled the blaze with eight helicopters, 199 engines and 46 bulldozers. Several large fixed-wing tanker planes also were involved. Images from some local TV stations and on social media showed that numerous homes had burned in the area between Lake Oroville, the state’s second-largest reservoir, and the town of Oroville two miles to the west. Carvalho said crews did not yet have an accurate total of homes lost.
The fire, located about 60 miles north of Sacramento, sent smoke drifting south across much of Northern California. Bay Area air quality officials said Wednesday that the smoke had not significantly affected air quality in the region because it was staying at higher elevations.
“It’s difficult to forecast smoke far in advance,” said Erin DeMerritt, a spokeswoman for the Bay Area Air Quality District in San Francisco. “But as of now, it seems like most of the surface smoke is in the Sacramento Valley. Winds are forecast to lessen Thursday, and we hope that will limit the smoke here.”
The fire was the latest example of what so far has been an intense and jarring start to California’s summer wildfire season.
After two below-average wildfire years due to wet fall and winter weather, this year, 139,590 acres have burned so far in California — an area nearly three times the size of the city of Oakland, and almost five times the five-year average for this time of year.
Experts said that two back-to-back wet winters caused a significant amount of grass and brush to grow. And although that normally means more moisture in vegetation, which reduces fire risk, the searing heat wave this week, with temperatures hitting 110 degrees in parts of the East Bay, Sacramento Valley and Southern California, has dried the landscape out quickly.
“This is one of those things that is really pushing the boundary of what we’ve seen before for this time of year,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. “Heat warnings have been extended into next week, to next Tuesday. This is very unusual.”
“We’re sort of off to the races,” he added, noting that climate change is making heat waves more severe. “There have been multiple large fires that have erupted.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Butte County on Wednesday.
The blaze began Tuesday at about 11 a.m. along Cherokee and Thompson Flat Cemetery roads near Lake Oroville. The flames spread quickly. At one point, grass and brush were on fire on the face of the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam, a mammoth earthen structure built in the 1960s.
The dam and reservoir are key parts of California’s water system. Lake Oroville is currently 94% full. Dam operators increased the water rushing down its massive spillway Tuesday and Wednesday, sending spray over the edges as the flames neared.
Most dam operators were evacuated to the Thermalito Power Plant several miles away. PG&E de-energized power lines, shutting off hydroelectric power production from the dam while the fire burned.
On Wednesday, officials with the state Department of Water Resources said the flames did not cause significant damage.
“There was no structural damage to the dam or the spillway, and the dam remains safe,” said Ryan Endean, a spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources. “We might find damage to fencing or equipment, but the structure of the dam and the spillway are safe.”
The area has been marked by repeated disasters in recent years.
In 2018, the Camp Fire, 20 miles north of Oroville, killed 85 people and destroyed most of the town of Paradise, making it the deadliest fire in state history. The year before, in 2017, more than 200,000 people were evacuated when the spillway at Oroville Dam crumbled during heavy winter storms, raising fears the massive dam might collapse.
“It’s pushing 107 degrees right now. People are just really tired,” said Trevor Smith, the owner of Big Red’s California BBQ in Oroville, which served food to fire evacuees. “A lot of them have been up all night. They seem emotionally drained. Most people are trying to live life normally, but they are on edge.”
The city on Wednesday canceled its July 4th fireworks show due to the fire risk.
Two weeks ago, the Junes Fire burned 1,065 acres and the Palermo Fire burned 100 acres just south of Oroville.
“It’s a little exhausting,” Smith said. “I don’t want to say we’re getting used to it. But we’ve all gotten really good at evacuating. The community comes together.”
Many evacuees waited nervously Wednesday to return to their homes. Diza Matheson, 52, a preschool teacher, and her mother Sabra Garcia, 80, had 30 minutes to pack their belongings Tuesday afternoon when a sheriff’s deputy knocked on their door in the Kelly Ridge neighborhood near the lake.
“The smoke was overhead. Ash was falling. It was a scary experience,” Matheson said. “I told my mom ‘don’t look west.’ We grabbed some clothes and enough food for the next few days. We crammed it in suitcases. And we prayed for the best.”
The pair, along with their three dogs and two cats, said they are staying at a friend’s house about five miles away and are grateful for fire crews working all night in difficult conditions. They had family members who lost everything in the Camp Fire six years ago.
“In some places,” Matheson said, “it seems like there’s nothing left to burn.”
