Park Fire reaches 160,000 acres: Today News | KTVU

Pam Cook. A wildfire burning in Northern California has nearly quadrupled in size in just the last 24 hours. Cal fire says the park Fire has now grown to more than 164,000 acres. It is burning near Chico right now. It's just 3% contained and threatening homes and businesses. The fire has destroyed several homes and is forcing mandatory evacuations and now a Chico man is in custody accused of intentionally starting that fire. Investigators say 42 year old Ronnie Stout pushed a burning car into a canyon at Upper Bidwell Park, which started the fire. He's now due in court Monday morning to face arson charges in connection with a fire that is proving to be extremely difficult to fight. >> Feels critically dry. These winds aren't helping those finer fuels, but the topography. So the steep canyons and the hills and just the lack of road systems in the area is make it challenging. Getting firefighters to the line to put direct line in. >> Stay with us here on mornings on two. KTVU James Torres is on his way. He will be at that fire for live reports throughout the morning. The largest wildfire in the country right now is here on the West Coast. The Durkee fire in eastern Oregon has grown to 269,000 acres and is just 20% contained. That fire is close to the state's border with Idaho, about 200 miles from Boise. Evacuation orders remain in effect for nearby communities. A youth baseball league in Rohnert Park will meet with the mayor next week for help against recent crimes. Someone intentionally set fire to a concession stand at Benicia Park late Monday night. The Department of Safety says the arsonist also stole food and beverages. The fire damaged appliances, including a new $10,000 commercial refrigerator for the snack shack. The league uses that snack shack to sell concessions during games and raise money for the league. >> I don't know why someone would do this, especially to kids seeing their their faces and the looks on their eyes when they came by and seen this, you know, that's who it affects. >> The criminals also vandalized a storage unit and restrooms. The league president tells KTVU this is the first fire, but the third break in since April, 475 players between the ages of four and 12 play baseball in that league. We're now hearing from a Richmond man who was attacked on his 77th birthday. It happened Wednesday afternoon after Roger Halbig confronted a suspected package thief on Lassen Street. Video shows him being repeatedly punched and kicked. This is that video. The Richmond man says he was walking his dog when he confronted a man apparently casing homes for packages to steal. >> I yelled at him, told him was a thief. I did it very loudly. I can be heard about a football field away if I yell loud enoug, more angry at myself for having been stupid enough to have confronted this guy. >> He was bloodied and bruised in the attack, but is now back home from the hospital. Richmond police are still searching for his attacker. A suspicious death investigation is now underway in Palo Alto after a body was found in a city parking lot. A large police presence swarmed the parking structure near Bryant and Florence streets about noon yesterday. Sky Fox was there over the scene. Officials say the body of a man in his 60s was located by a passerby. Police were quickly there to tape off a perimeter. Authorities say they believe the man was homeless and that the death was, quote, suspicious. In nature. No other information has been released. Governor Newsom's executive order to crack down on homeless encampments is drawing both support and criticism. His directive orders state agencies to follow a policy that's similar to one used by Caltrans. It gives encampment residents 48 hour notices that their tents will be cleared and their belongings will be held for up to two months. The governor says the time for action is now. He's urging local governments to apply for grant funding from a state proposition that was passed earlier this year to expand mental health care services. >> In the past, we provided no support, no resources to cities and counties to clean up encampments like this. Today, we've invested now over $1 billion in encampment resolution grants, not only clean up sites like this, but to address the underlying issue in the first place. >> California has resolved more than 11,000 encampments in the past three years. Homeless advocates are accusing the governor of criminalizing poverty, and they're calling his order a shameful moment in state history. Now in San Francisco, mayor London Breed says she's moving forward with a plan to remove encampments next month. She says the goal is to get people into shelters and on the path to permanent housing. But homeless advocates are suspicious of these housing policies. They say clearing encampments does not address the underlying causes, such as a lack of affordable housing or adequate mental health care. >> Say, we're going to go out and we're going to arrest folks, or we're going to clamp down. It kind of indicates that somehow people are there by choice when they're not. >> Mayor breed says the city will offer shelter before removing the encampments, and