California's largest current wildfire has doubled in size over the last 24 hours.
The Park Fire has now burned over 164,000 acres -- more than 250 square miles -- since Wednesday, making it the state's largest blaze in four years.
Authorities have arrested 42-year-old Ronnie Dean Stout II, a former convict accused of igniting the fire by pushing a burning car into a ravine at Bidwell Park in Chico, about 90 miles north of Sacramento.
The car went down an embankment approximately 60 feet and burned completely, spreading flames that caused the Park Fire, according to the Butte County District Attorney's Office. Stout was later seen "calmly leaving the area" while other parkgoers fled the fire.
Stout is due in court for arraignment on Monday.
The Park Fire took off just before 3 p.m. Wednesday and "exploded from a 400-acre fire to a more than 71,000-acre inferno consuming everything in its path," in just 24 hours, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE).
The blaze is 0% contained as of Friday morning. The fire is burning in grass, brush, mixed timber and dead vegetation.
"The Park Fire continues to burn very actively, especially when aligned with slope and winds, resulting in spotting and quick fire movement," CAL FIRE said. "This area is currently under a Red Flag Warning due to gusty winds and low humidity."
The blaze is also creating some weather of its own, in the form of multiple towering fire tornadoes -- a mix of wind, smoke and flames.
"The Park Fire, now five times larger than Disney World, in just two days went from nothing to 164,000 acres and as you can imagine, that releases an unbelievable amount of heat," Matthew Cappucci, climate scientist and meteorologist with MyRadar Weather, told KCBS Radio. "If [the smoke plume] towers high enough, it begins feeling changing winds with height in the atmosphere. So in this case it's close to about 30,000 feet tall acting like a thunderstorm."
"It starts to rotate and it rotates faster and faster and faster and with that vertical stretching of the spin, thanks to the fire of course lifting air upwards, you can get more concentrated vortices and legitimate tornadoes made out of fire," Cappucci explained.
Officials are especially concerned because fire tornadoes are extremely unpredictable and are known to be deadly.
"For example, back on July 26, 2018 in Redding, California, there was a fire whirl, a fire tornado that produced winds to 143 miles per hour, uprooted trees, knocked over transformers, and it actually wandered away from the main fire itself, killed a firefighter, and then destroyed a home within which three people died," said Cappucci. "So these things are legitimate tornadoes. They behave as such, but they move in unpredictable ways. They can be deadly."
The fire has already forced thousands of people from their homes while others have been warned to prepare to flee at a moment's notice. Butte County has declared an emergency in response to the fire, triggering a mass evacuation that extends to neighboring Tehama County.
Officials say 134 structures have been destroyed and at least 4,200 others are threatened by the fire. Two firefighters have been treated for minor injuries.
More than 1,630 firefighters are currently working on the ground and by air to suppress the fire, according to CAL FIRE. Numerous firefighting air tankers from throughout the state are also flying fire suppression missions as conditions allow.
Officials say firefighters and resources are coming in from around the state and Oregon to help contain the blaze.
Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced that he has secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure the necessary resources are available to suppress the fire.
The Park Fire is the largest wildfire California has seen so far this year. It's also the largest fire since the Caldor Fire, which broke out three years ago and charred more than 220,000 acres across three counties.
Fueled by low humidity and gusty winds, California is enduring increased fire activity this year, with more than 350,000 acres burned to date -- which is twice the five-year average, CAL FIRE said.