Thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate their homes due to a wildfire in Northern California, officials said Wednesday.
The Thompson Fire broke out Tuesday morning in Oroville, about 65 miles north of Sacramento. By Wednesday evening, the blaze had grown to 3,568 acres with 7% containment, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. The cause is under investigation.
Officials had said 28,000 people had been ordered to evacuate. On Wednesday night, some of those orders in several zones were downgraded to warnings, and residents in those areas were told they could return home, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said.
Rachael Thompson, 41, an Oroville resident who lives just outside the evacuation line, posted videos on Facebook showing flames engulfing nearby land.
“We have four air purifiers running,” Thompson told NBC News on Wednesday. “It’s still extremely smoky, but not like last night. It was stuffy.”
The flames have destroyed at least four buildings, threatened 12,000 others and affected numerous power lines, said Rick Carhart, spokesman for the Butte County Fire Department. Nearly 1,500 firefighters have been deployed to battle the blaze.
According to Cal Fire, there are eight confirmed injuries among civilians and fire personnel.
Oroville is no stranger to devastating fires, including the 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people and left approximately 50,000 homeless.
The Bear Fire of 2020 destroyed Thompson’s neighbor’s home.
“We’ve been through it so many times that it’s become second nature. Now we know what to do and we need to stay vigilant,” Thompson said.
Using a scanner app on her phone, Thompson listened in on police as they decided to evacuate the area where her twin sister, Crystal Kehle, lived. So Kehle was able to pack up and move to her sister’s house, along with her husband and father-in-law, by the time an official evacuation order was issued. Butte County also set up two evacuation shelters.
“California is using all available resources to fight this fire and will continue to support the communities affected,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said in declaring a state of emergency for Butte County.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said in a statement Wednesday that it approved federal funds Tuesday night to help California fight the fire.
Dan Collins, fire chief at Cal Fire’s Butte County Fire Station, said Thompson was not as aggressive as previous deadly fires in the county. Collins said he was “very optimistic” that Thompson would be prevented from spreading, especially since Cal Fire activated an incident management team that brought more resources and people to the front lines.
“It helps us as a local fire department because it’s difficult for us to support a major incident like this,” Collins said.
The Thompson Fire is one of more than a dozen still burning in the state as a dangerous heat wave sweeps across the West ahead of the July 4 long weekend. Excessive heat and the risk of wildfires have already affected holiday plans, with California State Parks announcing the cancellation of a fireworks celebration in Oroville. The cities of St. Helena and Antioch have also shelved Independence Day plans.
Thompson said her family also chose to cancel their Fourth of July plans.
“We’ve told our family members that we’re just, it’s just too hard right now. We’re not going to celebrate,” she said.
In total, there have been 2,934 wildfires in California this year, burning more than 340,000 acres.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
