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.
