When authorities ordered Brian Wong and his neighbors to evacuate as the Thompson Fire approached the town of Oroville this week, the restaurant owner knew he couldn't leave.
He had learned from the Camp Fire in 2018 how things can go wrong for people who can't defend their property, he said.
Oroville is about 20 miles south of Paradise, where the deadliest wildfire in California history killed 85 people and destroyed the county town of Butte.
“I used to be very hesitant to leave, but I’m hearing a lot of stories about fire victims who weren’t treated in Paradise,” the 53-year-old said. “I’m scared to leave my house, to leave my property, and all of a sudden it burns down and we’re in a mess.
“I choose to stay and defend my property if necessary,” he added.
As of Wednesday, more than 28,000 Butte County residents were under evacuation orders. The Thompson Fire had grown to more than 3,500 acres with 0% containment. Four homes had been destroyed and thousands of structures were under threat, according to Rick Carhart, a public information officer with Cal Fire’s Butte County station.
Carhart said several evacuees who lost their homes in the Camp Fire were forced to evacuate once again.
Crews battled the blaze, one of several that have broken out in the state this week, under excessive heat and red flag warnings. Temperatures were forecast to reach 108 degrees Wednesday, with wind gusts of 15 to 20 mph.
Much of Northern California remains under a red flag warning for extreme fire weather. A combination of winds up to 30 mph, low humidity and high temperatures “may contribute to extreme fire behavior,” according to the National Weather Service.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, eight new fires started across the state on Tuesday and nine on Wednesday. The Thompson Fire was the largest, followed by the Airline Fire in San Benito County, which spanned 1,200 acres and was 55% contained as of Wednesday morning.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday over the Thompson Fire, which he said threatened “structures, homes, critical infrastructure and healthcare and congregate care facilities.”
The fire occurred shortly before 11 a.m. Tuesday and is under investigation, but the cause has not yet been determined.
“The conditions in our county this summer are very different than we’ve experienced the last two summers,” Garrett Sjolund, chief of Cal Fire’s Butte County unit, said at a news conference Tuesday night. “The fuels are very dense, the brush is dry, and as you can see, any wind can extinguish a fire very quickly.”
Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said during the news conference that there have been four fires in the past two weeks and called this “a bad fire season.”
“I understand people staying,” Honea said. “If you stay, you want to make sure you pay attention to the direction the fire is going so you can get out if you need to.”
A helicopter drops water Tuesday on the Thompson Fire as it burns above Lake Oroville in Oroville.
(Noah Berger/Associated Press)
The sky was blue in many parts of Oroville on Wednesday, with a faint smell of smoke in the downtown area. Most businesses remained open, including the Wagon Wheel Market along Olive Highway.
Patrick Butler, 56, who runs the supermarket with his brother Tom, said residents “have been through this many times.” He used a hose to wet down the store, he said, although there were no visible flames in the area on Wednesday morning.
Outside, the air was a little smoky and roads to the east and west were blocked.
“I imagine we’re in a mandatory evacuation situation, if I had to guess,” he said in a brief telephone interview. “We’ve got plenty of defensible space. We’ve got a generator, a ton of water here. We’ll be here just taking care of our business.”
The market has been in the Butler family since 1981. Most of those working on Wednesdays were immediate family, including his brother, wife, daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, because his employees were unable to navigate the obstacles.
That morning, they had sold more sandwich mixes than usual, along with breakfast burritos and bottles of water.
“There are a lot of people within this evacuation zone that we are ready to serve,” he said. “We have a lot of first responders that need things.”
Oroville Chamber of Commerce members spent Wednesday morning contacting vendors to inform them that the Fourth of July fireworks celebration had been canceled.
“That was kind of a tradition in our community. But obviously, as the fire spread to the city limits, everyone was focused on addressing the emergency safety situation,” said Eric Smith, president of the Oroville Chamber of Commerce. “It just wouldn’t be responsible at this time.”
Don and Linda Pederson were determined Wednesday not to be intimidated by the latest fire to engulf their property.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” said Don, 81.
But it's the closest a fire has come to their home in 50 years, which sits near the Oroville Dam on a one-acre plot of land that has been in Linda's family since 1945. Don said he believes the fire, at its closest, was about a mile away. But he said they don't plan to evacuate unless it crosses Highway 162, which serves as a firebreak of sorts.
The Pedersons' home is in an evacuation warning area, although she said the fire map places their garage directly in the mandatory evacuation zone.
“Even if our entire house was in the evacuation zone, we wouldn’t leave unless we knew it was on our side of the road and down the hill,” she said, adding that they have electricity and, as a backup, a whole-house generator.
The day before, he said, “I could see flames in the distance.”
He said he is monitoring the fire with Linda, 79, from inside their home, with some essential paperwork stored away in case they need to leave quickly. Their lot has been mowed to create a defensive space and protect against drifting embers. Their two vehicles are parked away from the house in case it catches fire. There are two fire hydrants next to their property.
“The breeze is not very strong, but it is picking up right now,” he said. “And I have seen quite a bit of smoke.”
He added that emergency services have been working diligently since the fire broke out.
“Everyone was very involved in this,” he said.
Mike Shorrock, a retired Cal Fire battalion chief in Butte County, has been closely following the flames from his home east of Oroville, just a couple of miles south of the blaze. He speaks in the language of fire, talking about containment lines, drainage and fire conditions while feeling the familiar pull to return to the job he held for 45 years.
Shorrock's home is in a mandatory evacuation area, but for now at least, he said he's staying put.
“When you work in the industry, you’re kind of in denial, thinking, ‘That’s not going to happen to me,’ but I have a lot of friends who lost their homes in the Paradise fire,” he said. “I feel comfortable staying because of my experience and sheltering in place to stay and defend myself. That’s a personal choice that we all have to make.”
