Crime Man arrested in California wildfire that forced thousands to evacuate

Blayt7hh said:
Agreed. I think execution is warranted

Fun fact, arson was the worst crime to get convicted of in feudal Japan. Your whole family was put to death if you were caught committing arson
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Japan was mostly wood structures. The fire bombing in WW2 was easily as bad as the nukes.
 
My friends had to evacuate. Moved to Forest Ranch after Paradise burned down. Paradise is also next to Chico.

The dude is fucked. Butte County is agricultural area that already dealt with the Camp Fire which was the worst fire in CA history.
 
I wonder why they're not releasing his name or photo.
 

California’s largest wildfire of year grows as thousands ordered to evacuate​

The Park fire in the north of the state, only 3% contained, has burned more than 160,000 acres, including structures

A massive wildfire in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada has grown into the state’s largest this year, destroying buildings and forcing the evacuations of thousands of people in a region reeling from a spate of devastating wildfires in recent years.

The blaze started on Wednesday on the outskirts of Chico, a tree-lined university town of about 110,000 people in the Sacramento Valley. By Friday morning, the blaze, known as the Park fire, had burned more than 160,000 acres (64,700 hectares) across Butte and Tehama counties. Fueled by steady winds and hot weather, the flames have been particularly ferocious, licking above the tree line as the fire ballooned in size.

Crews had managed 3% containment by Thursday night, but lost all progress by Friday as the fire grew, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection (Cal Fire). At least two people have been injured, more than 130 buildings have been destroyed, and another 4,000 have been threatened, according to the agency.

“The fire quickly began to outpace our resources because of the dry fuels, the hot weather, the low humidities and the wind,” Kory Honea, the Butte county sheriff, said late Thursday.

About 4,000 residents in unincorporated areas of Butte county and 400 residents of Chico were ordered to evacuate, he said.

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Crews battle the Park fire in Chico, California, on 25 July 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
The fire began in Chico’s Upper Bidwell Park, an area beloved by residents for hiking and swimming. As the fire broke out, people lined the edge of town to watch the flames rise. Massive smoke plumes hung over and the sound of helicopters and airplanes fighting the fire whirred overhead.



A 42-year-old California man was arrested on Thursday and accused of starting the fire by pushing a burning car into a gully. The car went down an embankment approximately 60ft (18 metres), officials said, and burned completely.

By Thursday, crews were concentrating their efforts on protecting the community of Forest Ranch, a rural settlement of about 1,700 people roughly 15 miles from Chico. All residents of Forest Ranch have been ordered to evacuate due to the “extreme danger of being overtaken by fire”, authorities said.

Firefighters could be heard over the scanner trying to assist residents in the area who were trapped by flames and struggling to evacuate, including a pair with five horses.

“You have to be ready to go,” Honea told residents. “This county has seen time and time again where people have waited too long and they have lost their lives.”

The fire has left the entire area on edge and stirred painful memories. Nearly six years ago, tens of thousands of people sought refuge in Chico when the Camp fire, California’s deadliest wildfire, destroyed the nearby town of Paradise and killed 85 people. In 2020, the North Complex fire killed 16 people in Butte county.

In 2021, the Dixie fire burned nearly 1m acres and devastated the nearby town of Greenville. And earlier this year, the Thompson fire near Oroville destroyed dozens of structures.

In just three days, the Park fire has grown larger than the Camp fire. Some residents in Paradise and Magalia, which was also hit hard by the 2018 fire, are now under evacuation warnings.

Firefighters across North America are also working intensively to contain other wildfires across the region, including in Washington, Oregon and other states, as well as parts of Canada, as heatwaves reaching record-breaking temperatures continue.

The Durkee fire in Oregon, which started on 17 July and quickly became the largest active fire in the US, was 20% contained on Friday, according to officials. It has so far burned more than 403,200 acres (163,000 hectares).

On Friday morning, officials in Oregon said that a firefighting plane had been reported missing while assisting on containing a blaze known as the Falls fire, near Seneca in the Malheur national forest.

In Idaho, multiple communities were evacuated after lightning strikes sparked wildfires there, officials said on Friday. Multiple structures were lost, and the entire town of Juliaetta, a town of just over 600 residents about 27 miles south-east of the University of Idaho’s Moscow campus, was evacuated, as were several other communities near the Clearwater River.


Videos posted to social media showed a man fleeing Juliaetta, driving past a building and trees engulfed in flames as a tunnel of smoke rises over the roadway.

As of Friday morning, parts of California, Oregon, Montana, Nebraska and Idaho remained under the National Weather Service’s red-flag warning, meaning that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now, or will shortly.

Air-quality alerts are in effect in areas of Arizona, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Nebraska due to wildfire smoke. Parts of Colorado saw wildfire smoke in their skies this week, but conditions appear to have improved as of Friday.

The National Weather Service has also issued fire weather watch warnings –meaning that there is a potential for critical fire weather conditions – for areas of Utah beginning on Saturday.

As of Friday morning, the National Interagency Fire Center had reported 96 large active wildfires that were being managed across the country. The fires had, by Thursday, burned more than 1.6m acres, with many of the fires in the north-west of the US exhibiting “extreme fire behavior”.

And in Canada, a fast-moving wildfire destroyed the town of Jasper in Jasper national park in the Rockies. At least 25,000 people were forced to flee.

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Smoke from the Park fire fills a forest near Chico, California, on 25 July 2024. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

When the fire first started on Wednesday, Anasuya Basil, a 65-year-old resident of Forest Ranch, didn’t think it would reach her, she said.

But by Thursday afternoon, smoke had covered the sun, and everything became orange, she said. Shortly after, she and her neighbors received mandatory evacuation orders.

Basil, who is a craniosacral therapist, quickly packed a suitcase, grabbed her cat, tried to quickly clean up around her home, and loaded up her car to leave.


“The ride out was really hard,” Basil said. “The road out is very narrow and windy and bumpy.” She added that the “sky was dark with smoke” but luckily, nothing around her was on fire.

She arrived at a friend’s place out of the evacuation zone around an hour and a half later. Basil is not sure how long she will be displaced, but is expecting it to be anywhere from one to three weeks, she said.

“I am feeling pretty 50-50 about the survival of my home,” she said. “I’m very close to the fire line, and this is a very explosive fire, and it’s hot and windy and so anything can happen.”

Basil was one of several residents who’ve had to evacuate frequently because of wildfires in 20 years of living in the region; she was displaced for 11 days during the Camp fire.

While Basil waits to hear when she can return to her home, she said that she is staying in close contact with those in her community in various Facebook groups. “We’re a tight-knit community,” she said, adding that everyone helps each other, especially when these types of incidents happen.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/26/california-wildfire-evacuation
 
Gee.... I wonder why they haven't published the guy's name?


Still... I need to see proof that it was an intentionally set fire, rather than some POS that caught fire and the idiot pushed it where he did to get it off the road.

My pitchfork isn't out yet.

You have to play the same game I play on S-dog every day. Idiot or Evil. Need proof either way.
 
scoopj said:
Absolutely awful crime and he should serve years if found guilty. Ya'll calling for capital punishment are off your rockers though.
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Yeah, I'd settle for flogging.
 

Firefighters battle California’s seventh largest wildfire on record as thousands under threat​

The Park fire has more than doubled in size in 24-hour span to burn 350,000 acres and stretches over four counties

Thousands of firefighters continued to battle the Park fire in northern California which, propelled by extreme fire weather conditions, has become the state’s seventh-largest on record after burning for less than a week.

The Park fire, about 90 miles (144km) north of the state capital of Sacramento, had more than doubled in size in a 24-hour span to burn upwards of 350,000 acres (141640 hectares) – an area about the size of Los Angeles – and stretched over four counties: Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama, according to the California department of forestry and fire protection, or Cal Fire.


Cooler temperatures and more humid air were expected in the region, potentially helping efforts to slow the spread of the fire, which was 12% contained as of Sunday morning. Authorities had reassessed the damage the blaze has caused and reported that 66 structures have been destroyed and thousands more remain under threat; however no deaths have been reported.

The Park fire’s intensity and rapid spread led fire officials to make unwelcome comparisons to the disastrous Camp fire in 2018, which burned out of control in nearby Paradise, killing 85 people and destroying 11,000 homes and became the deadliest fire in California’s history. Paradise was once again under evacuation orders as were several other communities in each of the four counties.

Joe Biden has been briefed on the fire and has directed his team to do everything possible to support efforts to fight it, a White House official said.

Gavin Newsom made an emergency declaration for the counties of Plumas, Butte and Tehama as thousands of residents were fleeing their homes.

“We are using every available tool to protect lives and property as our fire and emergency response teams work around the clock to combat these challenging fires,” the California governor said in a statement.

More than 110 active fires covering 2,800 sq miles (7,250 sq km) were burning in the US on Friday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some were caused by the weather, with the climate crisis increasing the frequency of lightning strikes as the region endures record heat and bone-dry conditions.

The Park fire was caused by arson after authorities say a man identified as Ronnie Dean Stout was seen pushing a burning car into a ravine near Chico on Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Bee. Police said they arrested him Thursday after he fled the scene with others as the fire spread.

Stout remained in the Butte county jail on Saturday and was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday.

The fire was the largest of dozens of active blazes across the country that have burned more than 2m acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

In Oregon, several fires were burning, including the Durkee fire, which had scorched more than 288,000 acres in the eastern part of the state, authorities said.

A firefighter died after a single-engine tanker crashed near the Falls fire in south-eastern Oregon, the US Forest Service said in a statement on Friday.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/28/california-firefighters-park-fire
 
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