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California wildfire activity is 2,816% higher this year – and already spawned one of the largest in state history
The Park Fire tearing across Northern California is destroying homes and burning up land – and its destruction is only part of a far larger problem this year. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said this week that as of Tuesday, wildfire activity is 2,816% higher than last year for the same time period.
“As of July 30, 2024, wildfires have scorched a staggering 751,327 acres across our state,” Cal Fire wrote on social media on Wednesday. “This year’s wildfire activity is 2,816% higher than last year, 29 times the amount of acreage burned.”
This year’s fires are far above both last year’s numbers and the five-year average, the department found. In 2023, there were 3,746 fires burning 25,763 acres through July 30, while the five-year average for the period is 4,416 fires and 140,996 acres.
As of early Thursday morning, the state is battling 16 active wildfires, including the Park Fire that started just over a week ago after a man was seen pushing a burning car into a ravine. Ronnie Stout, who’s charged with reckless arson, appeared in court for the first time Monday.
So far, the Park Fire has spread across 391,200 acres and four counties, with Cal Fire saying in their latest update that it “continues to burn in heavy, receptive fuel beds.”
It’s at just 18% containment and has grown so much that it is now the fifth-largest wildfire recorded in state history, trailing just behind the SCU Lightning Complex Fire in 2020 that burned 396,625 acres.
With warmer temperatures and thunderstorms creeping into the area this weekend, Cal Fire warned that storms could drift over the fire area and bring “abundant lightning, new starts, and winds of 30 to 45 mph” as temperatures hit triple digits.
More than 430 structures, including homes, have been destroyed – including Mike Wittenberg’s. While kneeling in the ashes of what used to be his 4-year-old daughter’s room, he cried as he told CBS News Bay Area while seeing the debris for the first time, “It’s all gone.”
“I’m pretty destroyed right now,” he said of his family of five’s home in Forest Ranch. “I held out hope, hoping that something would still be here. … I didn’t think it was actually going to take our house.”
Of the active fires across the state, the causes of 14 remain under investigation. One – the Gold Complex Fire in Plumas County – was started by lightning, while another, the Park Fire, was started by arson.
U.S. and European law enforcement agencies are working together to investigate whether incendiary devices detonated in July at DHL logistics hubs in Germany and the U.K. were part of a larger operation directed by Russian Intelligence services (in particular, the GRU — Russian military intelligence), the highest level of the Russian government or by outside individuals acting in the interests of Russia, a source familiar with the matter said.
Officials are working to determine whether the larger operation was to place similar devices on aircraft servicing the U.S. and U.S. allies. The Wall Street Journal first reported the alleged plot targeting U.S. aircraft.
The 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment published at the end of October said the U.S. continues to be concerned about threats to the aviation and air cargo systems, including the “potential use of the air cargo supply chain to ship concealed dangerous and potentially deadly items.”
DHL said in a statement that it was aware “of two recent incidents involving shipments in our network. We are fully cooperating with the relevant authorities to protect our people, our network and our customers’ shipments.”
“We continually adjust our security posture as appropriate and promptly share any and all relevant information with our industry partners, to include requirements and recommendations that help them reduce risk,” the Transportation Security Administration said in a statement.
“Over the past several months, as part of a multi-layered security approach, TSA worked with industry partners to put additional security measures for U.S. aircraft operators and foreign air carriers regarding certain cargo shipments bound for the United States, in line with the 2021 TSA Air Cargo Security Roadmap,” the TSA’s statement continued.
The FBI declined to comment.
contributed to this report.
Boeing’s 33,000 unionized machinists on Wednesday voted to approve the plane manufacturer’s latest contract offer, ending a seven-week strike that had halted production of most of the company’s passenger planes.
The union said 59% voted to accept the contract. Members have the option of returning to work as soon as Wednesday, but must be back at work by Tuesday, November 12, the union said in a statement.
Union leaders had strongly urged members to ratify the latest proposal, which would boost wages by 38% over the four-year life of the contract, up from a proposed increase of 35% that members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) had rejected last month.
The revised deal also provides a $12,000 cash bonus to hourly workers and increased contributions to retirement savings plans. The enhanced offer doesn’t address a key sticking point in the contentious talks — restoration of pensions — but Boeing would raise its contributions to employee 401K plans.
Average annual pay for machinists, now $75,608, would climb to $119,309 in four years under the current offer, Boeing said.
The vote came after IAM members in September and October rejected lesser offers by the Seattle-based aerospace giant.
“In every negotiation and strike, there is a point where we have extracted everything we can in bargaining and by withholding our labor,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers stated last week in backing Boeing’s revised offer. “We are at that point now and risk a regressive or lesser offer in the future.”
Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su has played an active role in the negotiations, after recently helping to end a days-long walkout that briefly closed East and Gulf Coast ports.
The Boeing strike that began on Sept. 13 marked the latest setback for the manufacturing giant, which has been the focus of multiple federal probes after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. The incident revived concerns about the safety of the aircraft after two crashed within five months in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.
Boeing in July agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.
During the strike, Boeing was unable to produce any new 737 aircraft, which are made at the company’s assembly plants in the Seattle area. One major Boeing jet, the 787 Dreamliner, is manufactured at a nonunion factory in South Carolina.
The company last month reported a third-quarter loss of $6.1 billion.
contributed to this report.
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