Fire in Northern California’s Butte County Forces Evacuations, Fireworks Canceled

About 16,000 residents were under evacuation orders July 3 in and around Oroville, a rural town in Northern California, as fire crews tried to contain a wildfire that has exploded to nearly 3,600 acres—about 5.6 square miles—and remained uncontained. Oroville, the county seat of Butte County, declared a local emergency Wednesday as thousands of residents in the small town fled to escape the Thompson fire’s smoke and flames. State officials say the fire started in vegetation around 11 a.m. Tuesday at the junction of Cherokee and Thompson Flat roads in Oroville—a town of about 20,000 about 70 miles north of Sacramento. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Cal Fire reported in an update Wednesday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Management (Cal Fire)....