An enormous wildfire has grown by 8 sq miles an hour (20 sq km) as it spreads across parts of northern California.
The Park fire, which started on Wednesday in a suspected arson attack, has burned more than 348,000 acres of land north-east of Chico, and was 0% contained on Saturday, the state's fire agency Cal Fire said.
About 2,500 firefighters are battling the blaze, which has been fuelled by steep terrain and wind gusts.
A 42-year-old man was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of starting the fire by rolling a burning car into a gully near Alligator Hole in Butte County.
It is now the largest fire in the state this year, and has consumed an area more than 1.5 times the size of New York City’s five boroughs.
Cal Fire incident commander Billy See said the fire has been spreading at a rate of 5,000 acres an hour.
Officials arrested Ronnie Dean Stout, 42, and accused him of "calmly leaving the area by blending in with the other citizens who were in the area and fleeing the rapidly evolving fire" that he had set.
He is being held in jail without bail as authorities determine what charges he will face.
A woman who answered the door of the mobile home listed as his home address in Chico told the San francisco chronicle that prosecutors "are trying to make him the scapegoat".
“They’re saying he did it intentionally, but he didn’t. The car caught on fire,” the unidentified woman said, before refusing to answer further questions.
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