By Rick Hurd
Bay Area News Group
CHICO, Calif. — More than two months after it began, the fourth-largest wildfire in California history is now fully out, according to CAL FIRE.
State firefighters brought the Park Fire near Chico under full containment on Friday, according to the agency. On Monday, the agency said there is no more fire activity from the blaze, which began in July.
The fire burned 429,603 acres in total in Tehama and Butte counties and the Lassen National Forest, about 30,000 acres less than the Mendocino Complex Fire scorched in July 2018.
The 2020 August Complex Fire in Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Tehama, Trinity and Shasta counties burned more than 1 million acres and is the largest wildfire in California history, ahead of the 2021 Dixie Fire, which burned 963,309 acres in Butte, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties.
The Park Fire destroyed 709 buildings and damaged another 54, according to CAL FIRE. It did not cause any injuries to civilians or firefighters.
Prosecutors have charged 42-year-old Ronnie Dean Stout with arson, saying his actions started the blaze on July 24 in Upper Bidwell Park outside Chico.
Authorities said witnesses have told investigators that they saw a man pushing his car into a creek area and that the fire started in the tall grass.
Stout, 42, has pleaded not guilty in Butte County Superior Court to a charge of “willful and malicious arson,” as well as to four enhancements because of his prior felony convictions and the fact that the fire destroyed structures, authorities said.
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