Update: Cal Fire, local crews contain 400-acre grass fire at Chico’s Bidwell Park
Update: The fire was reported as 100% contained on Saturday night; better mapping lowered the acreage burned to 402 acres, Cal Fire said.
Original story: Cal Fire and city fire officials said Friday morning they have made good progress on a large vegetation fire that ignited Thursday night at Upper Bidwell Park in Chico, but that containment efforts will continue through the weekend.
No homes have been threatened or evacuation orders issued, authorities said.
Crews responded around 9 p.m. to the incident, on the north side of Bear Hole, which quickly grew from a couple of acres to more than 220 acres by 2 a.m., the Chico Fire Department said in social media posts.
Cal Fire’s Butte Unit in a Friday morning update said the fire had grown to 600 acres with 25% containment, burning beyond the city park and onto county land, but that no evacuations were in place outside of the park.
“Unfortunately, even with containment there will be several days of mop up that will be needed to ensure a secondary fire doesn’t break containment,” the Chico Fire Department wrote in a Facebook post early Friday morning.
The incident is being called the Park Fire. Officials have not shared details on potential causes.
Hours before being dispatched to the Park Fire, Cal Fire Butte responded to a few smaller fires that ignited as temperatures soared well past 100 degrees in the Chico area and throughout Northern California.
The most significant of those earlier incidents, the Ten Fire, occurred on logging land south of Sterling City and grew to 5 acres before it was contained, Cal Fire wrote in social media posts.
Cal Fire also responded Thursday to vegetation fires in Palermo and Forbestown on Thursday. Those incidents were contained before reaching an acre.
This story was originally published June 18, 2021 at 8:28 AM with the headline "Update: Cal Fire, local crews contain 400-acre grass fire at Chico’s Bidwell Park."
