Butte County is a county located in the northern central part of the U.S. state of California. In the 2020 census, its population was 211,632. The county seat is Oroville.
Chico is the most populous city in Butte County, California, United States. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 101,475 in the 2020 census, an increase from 86,187 in the 2010 census. Chico is the cultural and economic center of the northern Sacramento Valley, as well as the most populous city in California north of the capital city of Sacramento. The city is known as a college town, as the home of California State University, Chico, and for Bidwell Park, one of the largest urban parks in the world.
Concow is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in the Sierra Nevada foothills covering eastern Butte County, California. Due to a decline in employment and repeated wildfires, over the past hundred years the population declined from several thousand to several dozen. On November 8, 2018, a wildfire, the Camp Fire, destroyed most of Concow, as well as the adjacent municipality of Paradise.
Gridley is a city in Butte County, California, United States, 29 miles south of Chico, California, and 56 miles north of Sacramento, California. The population as of April 1, 2020, is 7,421. California State Route 99 runs through Gridley and Interstate 5 and California State Route 70 are both nearby.
Paradise is a town in Butte County, California, United States, in the Sierra Nevada foothills above the northeastern Sacramento Valley. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 4,764, a decline of over 80% from the 26,218 residents recorded in the 2010 census.
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at 300 Lakeside Drive, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield and northern Santa Barbara County, almost to the Oregon and Nevada state lines.
Butte Creek is a tributary to the Sacramento River, joining the river in the vicinity of Colusa, California, United States. About 93 miles (150 km) in length, it runs through much of Butte County, California. It travels through a spectacular mini-Grand Canyon as it reaches the Sacramento Valley floor, where it then flows somewhat south and west of the city of Chico towards the southwestern corner of the county.
Folsom High School is a public secondary school in the western United States, located in Folsom, California, a suburb east of Sacramento. Established 102 years ago in 1922, it is a part of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District.
Mission Hills High School is a high school located in San Marcos, California. It first opened in August 2004 on 40 acres (160,000 m2) of land that was previously part of the local Hollandia dairy. It has many career-oriented programs, such as the Academies of Business, Law Enforcement, Health Essentials, Fire Technology, and Culinary Arts.
Chico High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Chico, California, United States. As of 2017, Chico High School has 2,083 students.
Adventist Health Feather River, also known as Feather River Hospital, was a 101-bed acute care hospital located in the town of Paradise, in Butte County, California, with a wide array of outpatient departments and services designed to meet the health care needs of Paradise, Magalia, and neighboring communities. It was severely damaged in the November 2018 Camp Fire and is currently closed.
The October 2017 Northern California wildfires, also known as the Northern California firestorm, North Bay Fires, and the Wine Country Fires were a series of 250 wildfires that started burning across the state of California, United States, beginning in early October. Twenty-one became major fires that burned at least 245,000 acres (99,148 ha).
The 2018 wildfire season was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season in California history. It was also the largest on record at the time, now third after the 2020 and 2021 California wildfire seasons. In 2018, there were a total of 103 confirmed fatalities, 24,226 structures damaged or destroyed, and 8,527 fires burning 1,975,086 acres (799,289 ha), about 2% of the state's 100 million acres of land. Through the end of August 2018, Cal Fire alone spent $432 million on operations. The catastrophic Camp Fire alone killed at least 85 people, destroyed 18,804 buildings and caused $16.5 billion in property damage, while overall the fires resulted in at least $26.347 billion in property damage and firefighting costs, including $25.4 billion in property damage and $947 million in fire suppression costs.
The 2018 Camp Fire in Northern California's Butte County was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history. The fire began on the morning of Thursday, November 8, 2018, when part of a poorly maintained Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) transmission line in the Feather River Canyon failed during strong katabatic winds. Those winds rapidly drove the Camp Fire through the communities of Concow, Magalia, Butte Creek Canyon, and Paradise, largely destroying them. The fire burned for another two weeks, and was contained on Sunday, November 25, after burning 153,336 acres (62,050 ha). The Camp Fire caused 85 fatalities, displaced more than 50,000 people, and destroyed more than 18,000 structures, causing an estimated $16.5 billion in damage. It was the most expensive natural disaster of 2018, and is a notable case of a utility-caused wildfire.
The West Butte Fire was a wildfire that burned near Colusa, California in Sutter County in the United States. The fire started on June 8, 2019 and was contained on June 10, 2019. The fire burned over 1,300 acres (526 ha). The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Fire in Paradise is a 2019 documentary film directed by Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper and starring Joy Beeson, Beth Bowersox and Abbie DavisHiyori Kon.
Rebuilding Paradise is a 2020 American documentary film directed and produced by Ron Howard. The film follows the rebuild of Paradise, California, following the 2018 California wildfires, specifically the Camp Fire, known as the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history, and the most expensive natural disaster in the world in 2018 in terms of insured losses. The film was first announced in January 2019. Lincoln Else was the cinematographer, and Lorne Balfe and Hans Zimmer composed the score.
The North Complex Fire was a massive wildfire complex that burned in the Plumas National Forest in Northern California in the counties of Plumas and Butte. Twenty-one fires were started by lightning on August 17, 2020; by September 5, all the individual fires had been put out with the exception of the Claremont and Bear Fires, which merged on that date, and the Sheep Fire, which was then designated a separate incident. On September 8, strong winds caused the Bear/Claremont Fire to explode in size, rapidly spreading to the southwest. On September 8, 2020, the towns of Berry Creek and Feather Falls were immediately evacuated at 3:15 p.m. PDT with no prior warning. By September 9, 2020, the towns of Berry Creek and Feather Falls had been leveled, with few homes left standing. The fire threatened the city of Oroville, before its westward spread was stopped. The fire killed 16 people and injured more than 100. The complex burned an estimated 318,935 acres (129,068 ha), and was 100% contained on December 3. The fire was managed by the U.S. Forest Service in conjunction with Cal Fire, with the primary incident base in Quincy. The North Complex Fire is the eighth-largest in California's history, and was the deadliest fire in the 2020 California wildfire season.
The 1946 Far Western Conference football season was the season of college football played by the three member schools of the Far Western Conference (FWC) as part of the 1946 college football season.
