Weather & Science
Massive California Wildfire Signals Grim Outlook for 2024
How a flaming car allegedly led to one of the biggest fires in state history.
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California had all the ingredients for a terrible fire year. All it needed was a spark, or — authorities say — a single burning car.
The Park Fire raging out of control in the Sierra Nevada foothills may have started with an act of arson, after a man now in jail allegedly pushed a flaming car into a ravine. But it was able to outrun fire crews and explode in size — becoming California’s sixth-biggest fire on record — due to conditions that had been building for years. And those conditions could bode ill for the coming months.