Intense wildfire wreaks havoc in California's Butte County

A still-raging wildfire that’s already burned more than 120,000 acres in California — making it the state’s largest of the year thus far — was started by an ex-con and registered sex offender who pushed a burning car into a park gully, authorities said Thursday.

The inferno, now known as the Park Fire, ignited when the 42-year-old suspect, Ronnie Dean Stout II, allegedly rolled the vehicle into a gully in Bidwell Park near the city of Chico just before 3 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Butte County District Attorney.

The flaming car shot 60 feet down an embankment and burned to a crisp while spreading flames into the surrounding areas — eventually prompting mass evacuations in nearby Butte and Tehama counties.

Stout was then seen calmly leaving the scene of the fire by blending in with parkgoers fleeing the “rapidly evolving fire,” the DA said in a release.

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