Thompson Fire in Butte County prompts slew of evacuation orders near Oroville

BUTTE COUNTY – Evacuation orders and warnings went out in part of Butte County near Oroville due to a wildfire on Tuesday.

Cal Fire has named the incident the Thompson Fire, which started in the area of Cherokee Road and Thompson Flat Cemetery and has burned more than 2,100 acres.

Mandatory evacuations are affecting approximately 13,000 people near downtown Oroville east to Kelly Ridge and up north just past Cannon Reservoir. Evacuation Orders are in place for the following zones: 532-536, 700-716, 730, 731, 800, 818, 819 828, 851, 953, 954, 958, 959, 960, and 965.

Evacuation Warnings are in effect for Zones 531, 726, 727, 801, 802, 804-811, 816, 817 and 820. Here is a live map of the evacuation zones.

Several state water project facilities are also under evacuation orders, including the Hyatt Powerplant facility and the Lake Oroville Visitor Center. The powerplant is offline as of Wednesday morning due to the de-energized powerlines PG&E shut off; essential staff have also been relocated. 

Evacuation shelters were open at the Oroville Church of the Nazarene at 2238 Monte Vista Ave. and the Gridley Fairgrounds at 199 E Hazel St. in Gridley.

Tuesday night, CBS Sacramento captured images of a burned-down home on Canyon Drive in north Oroville.

The total number of structures burned or destroyed was not yet clear.

In addition to the images captured by CBS Sacramento, several photos from Getty Images depict structures and cars engulfed in flames in Oroville. See a gallery of those images here.

Tuesday evening, the City of Oroville declared a local emergency. The Thompson Fire was threatening critical infrastructure including water supply and power supply to the Oroville area.

In response to the fire, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state had secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide crucial resources to the area. The grant is provided through a federal disaster relief fund.

The California Office of Emergency Services also said it was deploying additional fire and law enforcement resources to assist with the Thompson Fire.

There were multiple sites where firefighters were battling flames. In a press conference at 6 p.m. Tuesday, a Cal Fire spokesperson said the priority was gaining control of the flames near the Oroville Dam.

Firefighters were working to keep the fire north of Long Bar Road in Oroville and south of Oregon City.

A dense plume of smoke filled the sky above and around Oroville. Winds were blowing the smoke south toward the Sacramento area.

More than a dozen aircraft, 50 engines and 15 dozers were engaged in the firefight, Cal Fire said. Some Cal Fire aircraft were filling up water and retardant at McClellan Park in Sacramento County before heading back north to Oroville.

No injuries have been reported. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

In:
• Oroville news
• California Wildfires
• Butte County