River Fire is on faster growth pace than Creek Fire – but its potential still unknown

It took just a few hours Sunday for the River Fire to surge from about 10 acres to roughly 2,500, surpassing even the early pace of last year’s devastating Creek Fire — which eventually exploded into the largest single wildfire in modern California history.

The new wildfire continued to burn into the early evening hours Sunday along the border between Mariposa and Madera counties, west of Yosemite National Park.

Mandatory evacuation orders were in place in both counties, with the fire still at 0% containment.

The 2020 Creek Fire was first reported the night of Sept. 4. It wasn’t until 11 a.m. the next day that the acreage was updated to 2,000 as it burned through foothill and mountain brush in eastern Fresno and Madera counties.

By the time the blaze was extinguished — with full containment not coming until Christmas Eve — some 379,895 acres had been consumed along with 853 homes and other structures.

There was no immediate indication that the River Fire had anywhere near that potential, but it did spark amid another year of crippling drought in the central San Joaquin Valley, with already dry grass, brush and timber baked even further by an extreme weekend heat wave.

The five largest California wildfires since 1932, when modern recordkeeping began, per Cal Fire, with fire nickname and start date; county location; total acreage; structures damaged; and deaths. “Complex” fires indicate two or more blazes that merged into one:

• 1. AUGUST COMPLEX: August 2020; Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, Lake, & Colusa; 1,032,648; 935; 1.
• 2. MENDOCINO COMPLEX: July 2018; Colusa, Lake, Mendocino & Glenn; 459,123; 280; 1.
• 3. SCU LIGHTNING COMPLEX: August 2020; Stanislaus, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, & San Joaquin; 396,624; 222; 0.
• 4. CREEK FIRE: September 2020; Fresno & Madera; 379,895; 853; 0.
• 5. LNU LIGHTNING COMPLEX: August 2020; Napa, Solano, Sonoma, Yolo, Lake, & Colusa; 363,220; 1,491; 6.

This story was originally published July 11, 2021 at 8:47 PM with the headline "River Fire is on faster growth pace than Creek Fire – but its potential still unknown."

Anthony Galaviz

The Fresno Bee

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Anthony Galaviz writes about sports for The Fresno Bee. He covers the Las Vegas Raiders, high schools, boxing, MMA and junior colleges. He’s been with The Bee since 1997 and attended Fresno City College before graduating from Fresno State with a major in journalism and a minor in criminology. Support my work with a digital subscription