Lightning and a burning car pushed into a gully are blamed for wildfires scorching the West

A burning car pushed into a gully sparked California’s largest wildfire of the year, authorities said Thursday as they announced the arrest of a suspect. Meanwhile other blazes scorched the Pacific Northwest.

Flames from the fire the man is accused of starting exploded into what is now the Park Fire, which has burned more than 195 square miles (505 square km) near the city of Chico. Evacuations were ordered in Butte and Tehama counties, with the blaze only 3% contained by Thursday evening.

California authorities did not immediately name the man they arrested.

Also in California near the Nevada line, about 1,000 people remained displaced from their homes Thursday after evacuations were ordered Monday night when lightning sparked the Gold Complex fires that have burned more than 4 square miles (10 square km) of brush and timber in the Plumas National Forest about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Reno, Forest Service spokeswoman Adrienne Freeman said.

There have been no reports of structure damage, deaths or serious injuries at the Gold Complex of fires southwest of Portola near the Nevada line. But they still had zero containment Thursday.

“We’ve made some really good progress on the fires,” Forest Service operations section chief Tom Browning said Thursday afternoon. “But it’s hot, it’s dry and it’s very windy … With the wind and the heat, we don’t have great containment on all these lines.”

Tim Fike, Forest Service incident commander at the Gold Complex, said gusty winds were plaguing crews at the Park Fire as well, causing new spot fires up to a mile beyond the main fire lines.

“That’s been a big, big problem on the Park Fire right now,” Fike said.

As evacuations continued in California, some Oregon residents were cleared to return home after a thunderstorm dropped welcome rain but also potentially dangerous lightning on the biggest active blaze in the United States. More than two dozen new fires started in Montana on Wednesday and early Thursday, and another fast-moving blaze forced thousands to abandon a town in Canada.

In eastern Oregon, evacuation orders were lifted for the city of Huntington, population 500, after a severe thunderstorm late Wednesday brought some rain and cooler temperatures to the nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers) burned by the Durkee Fire — the nation’s biggest — and another nearby blaze.

President Joe Biden called Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on Thursday night and offered his support to ensure the state has everything it needs to fight the fires, the White House said.

Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash called the rain a “godsend,” and the Oregon State Fire Marshal said firefighters were set to “seize the opportunity” of better conditions to push back the fire on the Oregon-Idaho border. It remained unpredictable and was just 20% contained, according to the government website InciWeb.

Lightning strikes started 15 new fires overnight in Idaho, the U.S. Forest Service told Boise’s KBOI-TV, but several had already been extinguished by Thursday afternoon. More than 2,800 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were detected across southeast Oregon and Idaho on Wednesday alone, the National Weather Service in Boise said.

Overall, nearly 1,562 square miles (4,045 square kilometers) have burned so far this summer in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon alone has 34 large fires, almost all of them in the central or eastern part of the state.

Climate change is increasing the frequency of wildfires sparked by lightning across the Pacific Northwest and western Canada as the region endures recording-breaking heat, with many triple-digit days and bone-dry conditions. Idaho Power has for the first time instituted a pre-emptive power outage, shutting off electricity to thousands of customers to prevent new fire starts and other power grid issues from wires downed by the high winds, the utility said.

In northern California, fire personnel were focusing on evacuations and defending structures while using bulldozers to build containment lines ahead of the Park Fire. No deaths or damage to structures had been reported, CAL FIRE/ Butte County Fire Department said.

A fire in southern California was much smaller, but moving fast and threatening homes.

Evacuation orders were in effect Wednesday night in San Diego County after a wildfire began to spread fast near the border with Riverside County. Fire officials said the Grove Fire was heading southeast through steep and challenging terrain. The fire grew to 1.4 square miles (3.6 square kilometers) overnight and was 10% contained by Thursday afternoon.

In Montana, a fire warning was in effect in the central part of the state because of high temperatures, low humidity and strong winds. An extreme heat warning east of the storm front meant temperatures could soar up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). After hurricane-force winds toppled trees, downed power lines and damaged gas lines in the Missoula area, authorities urged people to stay out of rivers because they might be electrified.

In the Canadian Rockies’ Jasper National Park, a fast-moving wildfire this week hit the park's namesake town, forcing thousands to flee and causing significant damage in the World Heritage Site. That blaze, like those in the Western United States, led to some air quality alerts or advisories as skies filled with smoke and haze.

Associated Press writers Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada: Martha Bellisle in Seattle; and Amy Hanson in Helena, Montana, contributed to this report.

Seen from Chico, Calif., a plume rises from the Park Fire burning in Butte County on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A dog being safeguarded by fire support personnel sits beside Cohasset Rd. as the Park Fire burns in the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Water truck drivers Robert Cramer, left, and Daniel Rudkin, sit with a dog they found as the Park Fire tears through the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Flames surround real estate signs as the Park Fire tears though the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Seen from Chico, Calif., a plume rises from the Park Fire burning in Butte County on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Firefighter Christian Moorhouse battles the Park Fire tears though the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. His crew was able to keep flames from reaching the mobile home they were protecting. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Cal Fire firefighter Christian Moorhouse defends a mobile home while battling the Park Fire in the community of Cohasset near Chico, Calif., Thursday, July 25, 2024. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

A plume rises from the Park Fire burning near Chico, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Flames consume a building as the Park Fire tears though the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Flames consume a car and building as the Park Fire tears though the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A hillside burns as the Park Fire tears though the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Walls stand at a residence destroyed by the Park Fire on Sycamore Valley Rd. near Chico, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A plume rises from the Park Fire burning near Chico, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Horses evacuate as the Park Fire tears though the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Firefighters spray water as the Park Fire tears though the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Flames consume a building as the Park Fire tears through the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

An animal runs through grass while fleeing flames as the Park Fire tears through the Cohasset community in Butte County, Calif., on Thursday, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

In this image provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, smoke rises from the Durkee wildfire on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, by the I-84 near Lime, Ore. In eastern Oregon, evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for the city of Huntington, population 500, after a severe thunderstorm late Wednesday brought some rain and cooler temperatures to the nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers) burned by the Durkee Fire, the nation's biggest, and another nearby blaze.(Brett Brown/USDA Forest Service via AP)

In this image provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, smoke rises from the Durkee wildfire on Wednesday, July 24, 2024, at the I-84 Rye Valley exit in Oregon. In eastern Oregon, evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for the city of Huntington, population 500, after a severe thunderstorm late Wednesday brought some rain and cooler temperatures to the nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers) burned by the Durkee Fire, the nation's biggest, and another nearby blaze. (Brett Brown/USDA Forest Service via AP)

In this image provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, smoke rises from a wildfire on Monday, July 22, 2024, near Durkee, Ore. In eastern Oregon, evacuation orders were lifted Thursday for the city of Huntington, population 500, after a severe thunderstorm late Wednesday brought some rain and cooler temperatures to the nearly 630 square miles (1,630 square kilometers) burned by the Durkee Fire, the nation's biggest, and another nearby blaze. (Brett Brown/USDA Forest Service via AP)

The skyline is obscured by wildfire smoke from blazes in the American West and provinces of western Canada late Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Haze hangs in the air over downtown Denver, Wednesday, July 24, 2024. Fires burning in California, Oregon, Arizona, Washington and other western states, as well as Canada, have filled the skies in regions of the western U.S. with smoke and haze, forcing some affected areas to declare air quality alerts or advisories. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)

In this photo provided by Alison Oszman, a fast-moving wildfire near the Orego-Idaho border moves toward a home on Rye Valley Lane in Huntington, Ore., in the afternoon o fWednesday, July 24, 2024. (Alison Oszman via AP Photo)

In this image provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation, shows an area burned by the Durkee fire near Interstate 84 close to Huntington, Ore., Tuesday afternoon, July 23, 2024. (Oregon Department of Transportation via AP)

In this image provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Durkee fire burns in the background as it nears Interstate 84 near Huntington, Ore., early Sunday, July 21, 2024. (Oregon Department of Transportation via AP)

In this image provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Durkee fire burns in the background as it nears Interstate 84 near Huntington, Ore., early Tuesday, July 23, 2024. (Oregon Department of Transportation via AP)

In this photo provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Durkee Fire lights up the sky in eastern Ore., Monday, July 22, 2024. (Oregon Department of Transportation via AP)

In this photo provided by Alison Oszman, a fast-moving wildfire near the Orego-Idaho border moves toward a home on Rye Valley Lane in Huntington, Ore., in the afternoon o fWednesday, July 24, 2024. (Alison Oszman via AP Photo)

The sun sets behind the mountains obscured by wildfire smoke from blazes in the American West and provinces of western Canada late Wednesday, July 24, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

This photo provided by the Oregon Department of Transportation shows the Durkee Fire burning in eastern Ore., Monday, July 22, 2024. (Oregon Department of Transportation via AP)

In this photo provided by Alison Oszman, a fast-moving wildfire near the Orego-Idaho border moves toward a home on Rye Valley Lane in Huntington, Ore., in the afternoon o fWednesday, July 24, 2024. (Alison Oszman via AP Photo)

NEW YORK (AP) — A mural honoring ancient and modern figures in medicine that has hung in the lobby of Pfizer’s original New York City headquarters for more than 60 years could soon end up in pieces if conservationists can’t find a new home for it in the next few weeks.

“Medical Research Through the Ages,” a massive metal and tile mosaic depicting scientists and lab equipment, has been visible through the high glass-windowed lobby of the pharmaceutical giant’s midtown Manhattan office since the 1960s.

But the building is being gutted and converted into residential apartments, and the new owners have given the mural a move-out date of as soon as Sept. 10.

Art conservationists and the late artist’s daughters are now scrambling to find a patron who is able to cover the tens of thousands of dollars they estimate it will take to move and remount it, as well as an institution that can display it.

“I would ideally like to see it as part of an educational future, whether it’s on a hospital campus as part of a school or a college. Or part of a larger public art program for the citizens of New York City,” said art historian and urban planner Andrew Cronson, one of the people trying to find a new home for the piece.

The 40-foot-wide and 18-foot-high (12 meters by 5.5 meters) mural by Greek American artist Nikos Bel-Jon was the main showpiece of Pfizer’s world headquarters when the building opened a few blocks from Grand Central Terminal in 1961, at a time when flashy buildings and grand corporate art projects were a symbol of business success. He died in 1966, leaving behind dozens of large brushed-metal works commissioned by companies and private institutions, many of which have now been lost or destroyed.

In recent years, Pfizer sold the building — and last year moved its headquarters to a shared office space in a newer property. The company said in an emailed statement that it decided the money needed to deconstruct, relocate and reinstall the mural elsewhere would be better spent on “patient-related priorities.”

The developer now turning the building into apartments, Metro Loft, doesn't want to keep the artwork either, though it has been working with those trying to save the piece with help like letting art appraisers in. The company declined to comment further, but Jack Berman, its director of operations, confirmed in an email that it needs to get the mural out.

Bel-Jon’s youngest daughter, Rhea Bel-Jon Calkins, said they’ve gotten some interest from universities who could take the piece, and a Greek cultural organization that could help fundraise for the move. But the removal alone could cost between $20,00 and $50,000, according to estimates cited by Cronson.

If they can’t immediately find a taker, the mural won’t end up in landfill, Bel-Jon Calkins said. But it would have to be broken up into pieces — nine metal sections and eight mosaic sections — and moved into storage, likely with some of her relatives.

Time is ticking away. Workers gutting the building have been carrying out ripped-up carpeting, drab office chairs and piles of scrap wood and loading them into garbage trucks.

For the past few decades, the artwork's metal — brushed tin and aluminum panels in the shape of laboratory beakers, funnels and flasks, surrounded by symbols, alchemists and scientists — has been a dull gray and white. But Bel-Jon Calkins remembers its original, multicolored lighting scheme.

“As you moved, the color moved with you and changed. So there was a constant dynamic to the mural that no one really has ever been able to achieve,” she said.

Richard McCoy, director of the Indiana nonprofit Landmark Columbus Foundation, which cares for local buildings and landscapes, said the piece might lack commercial value, describing Bel-Jon as “extraordinary, but not super well-known.”

“But then you realize 20 or 30 years from then how great it was,” he said, adding that it might merit preservation for its historical value.

Bel-Jon Calkins tracks her father’s 42 large-scale metal murals in a spreadsheet and on the artist's website. She said only about a dozen are confirmed to exist.

A 12-foot (3.6-meter) metal mosaic depicting saints and commissioned by a Greek Orthodox church in San Francisco was destroyed in the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989. General Motors commissioned a hubcap-shaped metal mural that was larger than a car for a trade show, but she confirmed it was later melted down into scrap.

“It’s the corporations that have lost them,” she said in a phone conversation from her home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. “They valued them enough to commission them but not enough to preserve them.”

This undated photo shows the massive "Medical Research Through the Ages" mural at Pfizer's 1961 world headquarters in New York with its original multicolored lighting setup. (Rhea Bel-Jon Calkins via AP)

This undated photo shows Nikos Bel-Jon in his New York Studio on East 72 Street in front of a model of the massive metal mural he built for Pfizer's world headquarters in 1961. (Rhea Bel-Jon Calkins via AP)

An image of Dr. Edward Jenner, who discovered a vaccine for smallpox, is part of a metal mosaic mural created in 1960 by Greek-born artist Nikos Bel-Jon titled "Medical Research Through the Ages," seen in the lobby of the old Pfizer headquarters in New York on Thursday, August 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

An image of a Sister of St. Martha, representative of women who devoted their lives to nursing the sick; and an image of Andres Vesalius, known as the founder of modern anatomy; are part of a metal mosaic mural created in 1960 by Greek-born artist Nikos Bel-Jon titled "Medical Research Through the Ages," seen in the lobby of the old Pfizer headquarters in New York on Thursday, August 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

Images, from left, of Horus, Egyptian mythology god; Emperor Shen-Nung; Hippocrates; and Doctor of Salerno; are part of a metal mosaic mural created in 1960 by Greek-born artist Nikos Bel-Jon titled "Medical Research Through the Ages," seen in the lobby of the old Pfizer headquarters in New York on Thursday, August 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

A metal mosaic mural created in 1960 by Greek-born artist Nikos Bel-Jon and titled "Medical Research Through the Ages" is in the lobby of the old Pfizer headquarters in New York on Thursday, August 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)