By Ian Austen, Qasim Nauman and Amanda Holpuch, NY Times, July 25, 2024, 4:19 p.m. ET
Wildfires spread across Northern California and western Canada on Thursday, leaving officials issuing evacuation orders, sending tens of thousands of firefighters to combat the blazes and broadcasting air quality warnings as smoke-filled air moved across the United States.
The Park fire in Northern California, which has burned more than 71,400 acres, is the largest there so far this year, after it ballooned overnight.
Officials in Northern California said on Thursday that they had arrested a 42-year-old man who was believed to have pushed a car on fire into a gully in Chico, Calif. The car was sent careening down a 60-foot embankment, sparking the Park fire, officials said. The man, who was not named, was being held in the Butte County Jail, and he was expected to be arraigned on Monday, the Butte County District Attorney’s office said in a statement.
Related: Massive Park fire sparked by man pushing burning car into a gully, officials say (LA Times)
The Park fire was one of hundreds burning in the western United States and western Canada, creating smoky skies that reached all the way to the East Coast. In Northern California, the authorities issued evacuation orders for parts of Tehama County and Butte County, where the Park fire had started on Wednesday in Bidwell Park, a large recreational area with hiking and biking trails and swimming holes, in the city of Chico. The fire swelled in the early morning hours on Thursday and was 3 percent contained.
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