Fire activity on the North Complex stayed relatively minimal over the weekend, but crews are bracing for poorer weather Monday that could “test containment lines” on the devastating Northern California blaze, which has killed at least 15 people since exploding in size last week.

The wildfire complex continues to burn primarily in Plumas and Butte counties after sparking Aug. 17 at Plumas National Forest. Fire officials say it was ignited by lightning during powerful thunderstorms that swept through the state last month.

The southwest corner of the complex flared up dramatically last Tuesday and Wednesday, jumping the Middle Fork of the Feather River and making a furious sprint toward the Lake Oroville area, boosted by wind gusts exceeding 50 mph.

The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for portions of Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama counties that was in place until at least 8 p.m., as the wind will meet continued dry conditions to create more critical fire weather conditions. Last week’s eruption on the North Complex came during a red flag warning.

The West Zone of the complex — which had previously been referred to as the Bear Fire — has killed at least 15 people as it ripped through communities north and northeast of Lake Oroville, including the town of Berry Creek, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea announced in a Cal Fire briefing Monday evening.

He said another two who are reported missing remained unaccounted for. Since Sunday sheriff’s detectives located five more missing people alive and well. To date, the Sheriff’s Office has received 182 calls from people asking for help to find a loved one, the sheriff said.

Current Wildfires

This map shows wildfires larger than 1 acre within the past 7 days. The larger the circle, the larger the wildfire by acres. Data is from the US Department of the Interior, Office of Wildland Fire, IRWIN, NIFC, NASA, NOAA, and ESRI and is updated every 15 minutes.

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Jayson Chesler jchesler@sacbee.com

Butte County sheriff and coroner’s officials on Sunday evening named another victim who has died in the fire. Khawar Bhatti, a 58-year-old Berry Creek resident, was killed in the West Zone.

Bhatti was the third victim identified by authorities. Previously identified were 16-year-old Josiah Williams and 77-year-old Millicent Catarancuic, both also of Berry Creek. Victim identities are not released until family members have been notified.

On Monday evening, Honea identified four more people who died in the wildfire: John Butler, 79; Sandra Butler, 75; Jorge Hernandez Juarez, 26; and Phillip Ruble, 68.

A relative called authorities on Sept. 9 to report the Butlers of Berry Creek were missing. Honea said the Butlers told family they were going seek refuge from the fire at a pond near their home. Their bodies were found near their home.

On Sept. 9, a relative called authorities to report that Hernandez Juarez was missing since the start of the fire. Honea said detectives found his body at a Berry Creek property.

Honea said Ruble and Catarancuic lived together and had packed up their belongings to escape the wildfire, but they changed their minds and decided not to evacuate after receiving false information that the wildfire had been 51% contained. The sheriff said their bodies were found near their destroyed home; Ruble was found in a burned Toyota pickup and Catarancuic in a nearby embankment.

Honea said deputies continued to patrol evacuation areas and have arrested eight people, including a man from Cherokee who lived in the evacuated area and had a stolen vehicle at his home, along with a Magalia woman who was in the evacuated area to water an illegal marijuana grow.

The sheriff asked residents to visit the Sheriff’s Office website to get the latest information on which Butte County areas remain evacuated.

North Complex containment up 13% in one day

Cal Fire’s official Monday morning situation report starts by declaring that the North Complex fire entered Butte County “with a vengeance” last week. The town of Berry Creek, which had a population of roughly 1,200 people, was effectively destroyed in a 24-hour window.

The North Complex fire as a whole has burned 264,565 acres and was 39% contained as of Monday evening, a containment increase of 13% since Sunday evening’s update, according to the U.S. Forest Service, which is the lead agency for the north and south zones of the fire. Cal Fire is in charge of the deadly West Zone, which the agency reported at 76,900 acres and 20% containment Monday evening.

The West Zone fire has destroyed more than 600 structures, including at least 376 homes, and continues to threaten approximately 23,000 more buildings across Butte, Plumas and Yuba counties, according to Cal Fire. The true destruction toll is likely higher, and will emerge as authorities continue to survey the damage, fire officials say.

Cal Fire spokesman Chris Harvey said Monday evening that the West Zone fire has destroyed 45 commercial buildings and 187 outbuildings or sheds. He said the fire has damaged 24 homes, four commercial buildings and 17 outbuildings or sheds.

Areas just south of Lake Oroville were urgently evacuated late Tuesday and early Wednesday, and an evacuation warning was issued encompassing nearly the entire city of Oroville southwest of the lake. That warning has since been lifted.

The Butte County communities of Berry Creek, Brush Creek, Big Bend, Feather Falls and Cherokee remain under mandatory evacuation orders, authorities said Sunday. La Porte and Bucks Lake are under evacuation orders in Plumas County. Yuba County evacuation zones 1, 2 and 3C along the Butte and Plumas county lines have mandatory orders in place as well.

Numerous evacuation warnings and road closures are in also in place throughout the three counties, but warnings for the city of Oroville and the communities of Palermo and Honcut were lifted over the weekend. An evacuation order for Forbestown Road along Highway 162 in Butte County was reduced to a warning at 8 a.m. Monday.

The Forest Service said containment lines have held well on the North Zone of the North Complex, as crews are “working toward their goal of tying into the 2018 Camp Fire scar” to the west near the communities of Concow, Magalia and Paradise. Officials also said firefighters made “great progress” Sunday securing containment lines on the South Zone of the complex.

More than 3,300 firefighters remain assigned to the North Complex, with over 2,000 of them fighting the West Zone, according to Cal Fire and the Forest Service.

The fire’s runs in the West Zone last week proved a frightening reminder for Butte County residents who lost homes, lost loved ones or otherwise lived through the traumatic Camp Fire less than two years ago.

“I’ll never go back,” 50-year-old John Sykes told The Bee last Wednesday. “I don’t want to see it. That’s why I’m leaving. I never want to see California again.”

The North Complex is currently the eighth-largest and seventh-deadliest wildfire in recorded California history, according to Cal Fire records.

Three other massive wildfires that started last month — the 877,000-acre August Complex near Mendocino National Forest in Tehama County; the 396,000-acre SCU Lightning Complex in the South Bay; and the 363,000-acre LNU Lightning Complex in the North Bay area — are the largest, third-largest and fourth-largest wildfires recorded in state history, respectively. All three are actively burning without full containment.

What about smoke and air quality?

Smoke billowing from numerous active wildfires, but especially the August Complex and North Complex, has worsened Northern California air quality nearly every day for the past three weeks.

The major flare-up on the North Complex turned the sky varying shades of orange last week, particularly Wednesday, as smoke became well-established in Sacramento and in the Bay Area.

Over the weekend, air quality index readings were very poor in the capital region, regularly exceeding 200 for particulate matter (PM 2.5), the air pollutant most closely associated with wildfires.

AQI readings across the greater Sacramento area were in the “unhealthy” range between 151 and 200 as of 7 a.m. Monday, and are expected to remain at similar levels the rest of the day as well as Tuesday, according to local air districts at SpareTheAir.com.

A radar forecast from NWS, though, shows near-surface smoke as comparatively light in the Sacramento area, with potential improvement by late Monday afternoon or early evening as onshore wind flows arrive. NWS forecasters say winds are expected to continue through later this week, and may be strong enough to keep pushing smoke out of the Sacramento region.

But the extent to which air quality improves will depend on how much smoke the fires continue to produce, which is harder to predict and could also increase due to those same winds.

The Bee’s Rosalio Ahumada contributed to this story. Listen to our daily briefing:

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