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A wildfire that started in Northern California on Wednesday and exploded in size overnight to become the state’s largest fire this year was sparked by a man pushing a flaming car down a gully, officials said Thursday.

Investigators arrested the 42-year-old man early Thursday as the Park Fire, which has grown to more than 120,000 acres, prompted evacuation orders in parts of Butte and Tehama counties. The blaze was 3 percent contained as of Thursday evening.

At least 3,500 residents are under evacuation orders, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office. Timber company Sierra Pacific opened gates on its land to help evacuate people in Cohasset, a community with only one way in and out, said Capt. Dan Collins, a Cal Fire spokesperson.

Though the cause of the blaze is still under investigation, Butte County District Attorney Michael Ramsey told reporters Thursday that Chico, Calif., resident Ronnie Stout had been arrested on suspicion of contributing to its origin.

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Ramsey said a witness reported seeing Stout standing by a vehicle in Bidwell Park, a large municipal park in Chico, on Wednesday afternoon. After a fire started under the vehicle, Stout allegedly pushed it down a 60-foot embankment into a gully. The beginnings of the Park Fire flared up from there, Ramsey said.

Stout is being held without bail pending a court hearing on Monday, when Ramsey said he would be arraigned on a count of arson.

As firefighters battle the blaze, they are “focusing on evacuations and structure defense” while “building direct containment lines,” the Butte County Fire Department said. An evacuation center has been set up in Chico, according to Cal Fire, and the state has secured a federal grant to fight the fire, Newsom’s office announced.

While there have been no official reports of structures burned, video shows at least one home in flames amid what appears to be a leaking gas line. By Thursday evening, evacuation warnings extended into the town of Paradise, which was ravaged by the Camp Fire, the deadliest fire in California’s history, in 2018.

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In a briefing Thursday, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain called the fire’s behavior “extraordinary.” He predicted the blaze could eventually grow to several hundred thousand acres, spreading to the north and east.

“There’s a lot of fuel ahead of this thing,” Swain said.

Butte County has endured an active fire season this year. More than two dozen structures in the county were destroyed this month as the Thompson Fire burned over 3,700 acres. Several other wildfires have been reported in the county, including the Junes Fire, which burned more than 1,000 acres in June.

“It is maddening that we’re here again,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said at a news conference Thursday. “And it is particularly maddening that this particular fire was caused by an individual.”

Jamie Grettum, a Salesforce instructor who lives in Chico — less than 15 miles west of Paradise — said she could see plumes of smoke from her neighborhood all afternoon. On Wednesday evening, she joined hundreds of people at a nearby park to watch the fire on the horizon and get a sense for “how nervous we need to be right now,” she told The Washington Post.

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Grettum said she could sense the anxiety in the air, especially because of the Camp Fire’s legacy. “We know for sure we’re standing out there with survivors of that,” she said. “It was tense and silent and sad.”

Grettum is also a wildfire survivor — the 2007 Witch Fire burned down her neighborhood in San Diego County. On Wednesday, she was “doing a little mental checklist” of what to take with her if she has to evacuate, she said. “When you’re packing and evacuating, you never think your house will burn. … I know better than that now.”

Diana Leonard contributed to this report.

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