Four homes destroyed, 13k remain evacuated as Thompson Fire burns 3,000 acres in Butte County

Firefighters made progress overnight battling a fast-moving wildfire that prompted evacuations for 13,000 residents and threatened the city of Oroville after exploding to over 3,000 acres amid unrelenting heat and dangerous wind gusts.

The Thompson Fire, which has been burning in Butte County near Lake Oroville since 11 a.m. Tuesday, was 3,568 acres (5.5 square miles) as of noon Wednesday, according to the Cal Fire website. As of 6 p.m., Cal Fire reported the fire was 7% contained.

Rick Carhart, a spokesman for Cal Fire’s Butte County unit, said the Thompson Fire had destroyed at least four structures. A home home spotted Wednesday on Bessie Lane, just southwest of Lake Oroville, was among the four structures destroyed by flames.

Photos posted on social media showed houses and vehicles burned. He said the buildings were reported as single-family homes, but damage assessment crews were out in the field surveying what’s been destroyed as an army of more than 1,400 fire personnel were tasked with structure protection and establishing control lines around the fire.

Four firefighters also suffered minor injuries from heat-related illness while fighting the blaze in grass and oak woodlands Tuesday night, he said. No residents have been injured.

Another blaze, the Grubbs Fire, ignited Wednesday afternoon and led to evacuation orders in the small town of Palermo, about 10 miles south of Oroville. The Butte County Sheriff’s Office ordered residents in two zones to leave, while other residents were under an evacuation warning.

Kelly Ridge under threat as more firefighters arrive

The fire was burning in the area of Kelly Ridge, a community sandwiched between the city of Oroville and the reservoir. The cluster of homes just outside of Oroville’s city limits remained under threat after flames jumped the diversion pools used to power Oroville Dam’s hydroelectric plant. The plant has since been taken offline, state water managers said. Cal Fire officials said the fire also made a significant run from where it started on Cherokee Road toward Oregon Gulch.

Carhart said the large influx of resources — 1,438 personnel as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, which includes the assignment of Incident Management Team 6 — would help as firefighters contended with flames amid temperatures expected to reach 111 degrees and strong north winds that could continue into afternoon.

He said firefighters performed “a lot of really good work” overnight as temperatures eased and humidity levels rose: “Getting the sun off the fire, activity really moderated.” Still amid a second day of red flag warnings across the Sacramento Valley, Carhart said conditions at the Thompson Fire were “very hot” and “ripe” for fire growth. Winds were also a concern, he said, with 10 to 15 mph sustained winds were expected through Wednesday, with occasional gusts.

Renee Marshall is a Kelly Ridge resident who was ordered to evacuate. She felt she didn’t need to evacuate — choosing to stay home rather than putting her 85-year-old mother through hours of traffic amid a heat wave to get away. She said she appreciated the precautionary measures, but she felt she didn’t need to evacuate.

“After all, it’s a mountain (burning) that is across the lake,” Marshall said Wednesday. “There’s no homes over there. Clearly, it’s not going to affect Kelly Ridge. The people that live here, their homes are not at risk.”

She said her neighbors, those who evacuated when ordered, are out spending “money they don’t have” on fast food and other necessities because they can’t return home. Marshall believes her evacuated neighbors are needlessly spending money they would normally use to pay rent and utility bills.

Marshall has lived in Kelly Ridge for five years. She used to live Paradise before the destructive 2018 Camp Fire that killed 85 people and destroyed more than 10,000 homes and other buildings.

“I know what a fire looks like when it is a severe threat,” Marshall said. “And (the Thompson Fire) did not look like a severe threat here.”

She worked as a Butte College bus driver back then, and she evacuated students from the campus before she fled the wildfire in Paradise. Her mother was evacuated separately, and Marshall said they had no idea where her mother was for four hours until they found her 20 miles away in Chico. Her mother didn’t have a cellphone.

“We were all worried she got caught in the fire and died or had a heart attack trying to drive out,” Marshall said.

Evacuations remain, fireworks canceled

Dozens of evacuations remain in place and the city of Oroville declared a local emergency, but some areas in Oroville were reduced to evacuation warnings Wednesday afternoon. The Sheriff’s Office around 3 p.m. announced that zones 965A (north of Highway 162), 817 and 828 in Oroville were now under an evacuation warning rather than a mandatory order.

Also reduced to an evacuation warning were areas in Oroville along Percy Way south to Mount Ida Road, and along Mount Ida Road from Oro-Bangor Highway east to Oakvale Avenue in Zone 806. Sheriff’s officials said the remaining area of Zone 806, north of Percy Way, remains under an mandatory evacuation order.

The Sheriff’s Office allowed residents in evacuation warning zones to return home Wednesday but urged them to stay aware of changing weather and fire conditions.

The Lake Oroville State Recreation Area also is closed and state parks officials said all camping reservations had been canceled through July 5 and “may be extended.”

Before noon, state parks officials said the city’s annual fireworks show on Thursday would be canceled for “public safety.”

“Donations to the Oroville Chamber of Commerce for fireworks will be used towards a community firework show to be determined by them at a later and safer date,” officials said, as crews from the city, county and state “have a large number of resources responding to protect the community and get everyone back home as quickly as possible.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom also proclaimed a state of emergency Wednesday morning in response to the blaze. On Tuesday, the governor announced the state received a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that would help reimburse agencies assisting with suppressing the fire.

“It’s one of many fires we’ve seen, and one of the most active fire seasons we’ve had in years,” Newsom said in a social media post.

At a Tuesday evening news conference, Cal Fire Butte Unit Chief Garrett Sjolund warned residents that fireworks are banned in Butte County, and only legal fireworks are allowed in the cities of Oroville, Biggs and Gridley.

Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea also warned residents about using fireworks this Fourth of July as Northern California’s current heat wave intensifies and increases the risk of a dangerous wildfire.

“This is a bad fire season,” Honea said at Tuesday’s news conference. “Don’t be an idiot and cause a fire and create more problems for us.”

Patrols in evacuated areas

Honea said every mutual aid agency in the county was providing the Sheriff’s Office with assistance on the Thompson Fire, and 20 law enforcement agencies outside Butte County were sending 75 law enforcement officials to help, as well.

The sheriff said deputies and other law enforcement officials will patrol overnight to ensure safety and prevent looting in the evacuated zones. Some residents did not evacuate when they were ordered to leave, and the sheriff said those residents must stay indoors and be ready to leave if the fire gets closer.

“If you’re out and about driving around, expect to be stopped by one of those law enforcement officers,” Honea said. “And if turns into an issue where you’re continuing to drive around and creating a problem for us, you will be escorted out (of the evacuated zones).”

Zones under mandatory evacuations, as of 10 a.m.:

• Cherokee: CHE-532 to 536

• Hurleton: HUR-851

• Kelly Ridge: KR-700 to 716

• Oroville Northeast: ONE-730 and 731

• Oroville: ORO-953, 954, 958-960, 965

• Oroville Southeast: OSE-800, 801, 806-810, 817-819, 828

Zones under voluntary evacuations, as of 10 a.m.:

• Cherokee: CHE-531

• Oroville Northeast:ONE-726 and 727

• Oroville: ORO-964

• Oroville Southeast: OSE-802, 804-805, 811, 816, 820

Authorities have set up the following evacuation shelters for residents and their animals:

• Butte County Fairgrounds, 199 E. Hazel St., Gridley

• Oroville Church of the Nazarene, 2238 Monte Vista Ave, Oroville

• Large animals: Camelot Large Animal Shelter, 1985 Clark Rd, Oroville

• Small animals: Old county hospital, 2279 Del Oro Ave., Oroville

The Bee’s Vincent Medina and Hector Amezcua contributed to this story.