California's raging Park Fire is consuming '5,000 acres an hour'

A raging inferno whipped by winds, California’s Park Fire continued its relentless march through bone-dry wilderness north of Chico, burning 350,012 acres as of Saturday night, Cal Fire said. The blaze is the seventh-largest wildfire in California’s history. The fire has forced thousands of people to leave their homes in Butte, Tehama, Lassen and Shasta counties, and has destroyed 130 structures, with this number likely to increase.

“It’s been growing 5,000 acres an hour since the inception or the ignition of this incident started,” Cal Fire Incident Commander Billy See said at a Saturday morning briefing. “OK, just to put that into perspective, we’re looking at almost 8 square miles an hour this thing is taking out. ... It’s going to be another dynamic day.”