The Park fireCalifornia’s largest and most destructive in 2024, continues to rage in Northern California, having already burned 414,000 acres across four counties and destroyed hundreds of structures.
The fire has been burning for almost two weeks. Authorities say it started with a man pushing a burning car into a gutter.
New images from space give a sense of the devastation it has wrought.
The satellite photo below, from Maxar Technologies, shows homes on Richardson Springs Road in Chico. On the left is the block on July 21, before the fire.
On the right, the same block is seen five days later. Several homes have been destroyed and the landscape is charred and smoldering.
Officials warn that hot, dry weather conditions and land that hasn’t burned recently could hold fire goes on for months.
As of Tuesday, it was 34% contained. More than 6,500 people had been assigned to fight it, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.
The image below from NASA gives a sense of the extent of the fire.
At left is a view from space of Northern California on July 19, 2024, near the cities of Redding and Chico.
On the right is the same area on August 5. Smoke from the fire can be seen billowing up the eastern side of the huge charred area.
The Park Fire is burning about a dozen miles from Paradise, site of the deadliest wildfire in California history; 86 people died in the camp fire in 2018.
Some families moved from Paradise after the campfire, just to become one displaced again by the park fireraises questions about safety in northern California mountain towns.
A third satellite view of the raging fire can be seen below.
Intense pyrocumulonimbus plumes billow from the raging Northern California wildfire. (CSU/CIRA & NOAA)
The video above, from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationshows the path of the fire over time.
In addition to displacing people, the Park Fire, now the fourth largest in state history, is at risk the delicate Chinook salmon. The federally threatened fish had already experienced a population crash.
“This fire coming into the upper watershed, where we have sensitive spawning and breeding habitat, is concerning,” said Matt Johnson, senior environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We’re all pretty worried about the outcome.”