SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ Three weeks after it made its horrific run into Butte County, killing 15 people and destroying hundreds of homes, fire activity on the West Zone of the North Complex has essentially halted.
Although there are problem areas remaining on the two other zones of the North Complex, the once-devastating West Zone is almost fully contained as of Tuesday morning, according to Cal Fire.
The 84,595-acre section of the wildfire complex faced what was hopefully its final test Sunday and Monday. Containment lines built around the fire held up in the face of gusts that approached 50 mph at gaps and canyons near the fire zone, Cal Fire's Butte unit said in a Tuesday morning update.
With the hold and winds now having died down, plus containment reported at 95%, Cal Fire said "no further fire growth is expected," according to Tuesday's incident report.
"We have continued good news for the West Zone of the fire," Cal Fire Section Chief Shane Lauderdale said in a brief Tuesday morning video update.
It's a desperately needed piece of good wildfire news for Northern California. Two other explosive incidents, the destructive Glass fire in the North Bay and the deadly Zogg fire in Shasta County, sprung up Sunday and continue to threaten thousands of homes. The two fires have already displaced tens of thousands of residents.
Firefighters will remain at the West Zone to mop up potential hot spots, and to make sure the fire perimeter stays secure and that conditions are safe for homeowners to return.
The Butte County Sheriff's Office on Monday announced that evacuation orders and warnings for the communities of Feather Falls, Forbestown, Clipper Mills, Highway 162 south of Whispering Chapel Lane and all areas south of Lake Oroville have been lifted. Authorities also reduced an evacuation order along the Oro-Quincy Highway to a warning. All orders related to the West Zone are also lifted in Yuba County.
While the West Zone's threat appears to be mitigated, there is still some concern about the two other zones of the 309,000-acre North Complex, especially its North Zone, where a flare in fire activity led to evacuation orders and warnings starting Sunday night in other Butte County communities. Those new evacuations remained in place as of 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The U.S. Forest Service said in a Tuesday morning incident report that what began as a spot fire Sunday afternoon "has grown to within several hundred yards of Highway 70 near Grizzly Dome Tunnel," and that "growing uncontained fireline" in that area resulted in reported containment on the North Complex dropping from 78% to 76%.
Butte authorities placed Pulga, Concow, Big Bend and Yankee Hill under mandatory evacuation orders late Sunday evening due to this flare-up, and put Stirling City and Magalia under evacuation warnings. The town of Paradise, which was largely destroyed by the 2018 Camp Fire, issued its own evacuation warning encompassing the entire town.
The North Complex as a whole started in mid-August as three different lightning-sparked fires that merged, starting at Plumas National Forest. The blazes spread at a relatively slow pace until the morning of Sept. 8, when furious wind gusts pushed a corner of the fire _ then known as the Bear fire, renamed to the West Zone shortly after it exploded in size _ southwest toward communities surrounding Lake Oroville near the convergence of Butte, Yuba and Plumas counties.
The Bear/West Zone fire effectively destroyed the town of Berry Creek, where about 1,200 people lived, and devastated other communities just north of Lake Oroville, including Feather Falls.
Butte sheriff's and coroner's officials confirmed 15 deaths from the West Zone: 13 residents of Berry Creek, and two from Feather Falls.
That death toll makes the West Zone (and, by extension, the North Complex) tied for the fifth-deadliest wildfire in California history. The North Complex, officially reported at 308,895, is the fifth largest in state history, dating back to the start of reliable record keeping in 1932.
Five of the six biggest wildfires in recorded California history have ignited since mid-August.
Wildfires have always been part of life in California. The past four years have brought some of the most destructive and deadliest wildfires in the state's modern history.
Nearly 180 people have lost their lives since 2017. More than 41,000 structures have been destroyed and nearly 7 million acres have burned � that's roughly the size of Massachusetts.
So far this year, 29 people have died, according to Cal Fire.
Meanwhile, this year's August was the hottest on record in California. A rare series of lightning storms sparked a series of fires, including the August Complex that has burned roughly 840,000 acres, making it the largest wildfire in California's recorded history.
Our climate is becoming more severe.
The 2017 wildfire season occurred during the second hottest year on record in California and included a devastating string of fires in October that killed 44 people and destroyed nearly 9,000 buildings in Napa, Lake, Sonoma, Mendocino, Butte and Solano counties.
The following year was the most destructive and deadliest for wildfires in the state's history. It included the Camp fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, and the enormous Mendocino Complex.
