CHICO, Calif. — The Chula Vista Fire department deployed 14 firefighters to the Park Fire in northern California. The blaze is considered one of the largest in state history.
On Monday, the man accused of starting the fire, Ronnie Dean Stout II, was charged with arson in a Butte County courtroom and a judge denied him bail.
CalFire reported the Park Fire is only at 12% containment.
The blaze continued to rage through four counties spreading to more than 368,000 acres, which is greater than the size of Los Angeles
Officials say the fire erupted last Wednesday when Stout was seen pushing a burning car into a gully in Chico.
CalFire says more than 100 structures have been destroyed and it’s at 12 percent containment.
“The Fire is creating some unique challenges, just due to the severity and the quickness of it is growing,” said Captain Eric Martinez, Chula Vista Fire Department.
On Saturday, the Chula Vista Fire Department reassigned 14 of its strike team firefighters from the Gold Complex Fire in Plumas County to the Park Fire.
“They’re mixing it between structure defense as well as direct fire attack in terrain that is pretty strenuous for the amount of activity that they’re doing,” said Martinez.
Chula Vista also brought their Rapid Extrication Module, which is a utility task vehicle that can get in to hard-to-reach terrain to rescue people.
“They are fully equipped to get that UTV or set up a rope system to bring somebody to where we can eventually get them onto either an air ambulance or an ambulance on the ground and go to the highest medical treatment,” said Martinez.
San Diego Cal Fire also has hand crews assisting in the Park Fire as well as local strike teams from San Diego Fire-Rescue, Carlsbad and Heartland Fire Rescue departments.
Many were reassigned while assisting in one of the dozen wildfires actively burning across the state.
Chula Vista Fire says strike teams are deployed on a 14-day rotation and local response is not impacted.
“Even though we are wearing different patches, this is one big fire family, so we’re there to assist the different jurisdictions in the hopes that if something happened here, we do know that they will come down and assist us in our hometown as well,” said Martinez.
CalFire reports there have been no fatalities reported at this point. If someone dies related to the fire, the suspect could face more charges.
The Butte County District Attorney’s office reports that Stout has a previous criminal record. If convicted, this would be his third felony, and he would be automatically sentenced to 25 years to life in prison as someone with three felonies under California’s “three strikes law.”
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