CHICO, Calif. — Fire crews battling California’s largest wildfire this year have corralled a third of the blaze aided in part by cooler weather, but a return of triple-digit temperatures could allow it to grow, fire officials said Sunday.

Cooler temperatures and increased humidity gave firefighters “a great opportunity to make some good advances” on the fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills, said Chris Vestal, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The Park Fire has scorched 627 square miles (1,623 square kilometers) since igniting July 24 when authorities said a man pushed a burning car into a gully in Chico and then fled. The blaze was 30% contained as of Sunday.

The massive fire has scorched an area bigger than the city of Los Angeles, which covers about 503 square miles (1,302 square kilometers). It continues to burn through rugged, inaccessible, and steep terrain with dense vegetation.

The fire’s push northward has brought it toward the rugged lava rock landscape surrounding Lassen Volcanic National Park, which has been closed because of the threat. The inhospitable terrain remains one of the biggest challenges for firefighters.

“The challenge with that is we can’t use our heavy machinery like bulldozers to go through and cut a line right through it,” Vestal said.

“On top of that, we have to put human beings, our hand crews, in to remove those fuels and some of that terrain is not really the greatest for people that are hiking so it takes a long time and extremely hard work,” he added.

The fire has destroyed at least 572 structures and damaged 52 others. At least 2,700 people in Butte and Tehama Counties remain under evacuation orders, Veal said.

After days of smoky skies, clear skies Sunday allowed firefighters to deploy helicopters and other aircraft to aid in the fight against the blaze as temperatures reached above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (about 38 degrees Celsius).

“The fire is in a good place from the weather conditions we had the last couple of days but we still have to worry about the weather that we have and the conditions that are going to be present now for about the next five or six days,” Veal said.

The fire in Northern California is one of 85 large blazes burning across the West.

In Colorado, firefighters were making progress Sunday against three major fires burning near heavily populated areas north and south of Denver. Many residents evacuated by the fires have been allowed to go back home.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a blaze threatening hundreds of homes near the Colorado city of Littleton as arson.

About 50 structures were damaged or destroyed, about half of them homes, by a fire near Loveland. And one person was found dead in a home burned by a fire west of the town of Lyons.

Scientists say extreme wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in the U.S. West and other parts of the world as climate change warms the planet and droughts become more severe.

In Canada, a 24-year-old firefighter battling a blaze in Jasper National Park was killed Saturday by a falling tree, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

The firefighter from Calgary, whose name was not released, was battling a fire north of Jasper, a town in Alberta Province that was half destroyed last month by a fast-moving fire.

I have long wondered what marketing genius came up with all these national wine celebration days—as if we really need an excuse to imbibe. Anyway, today, we’re celebrating, observing—and certainly, drinking white wines—the day so designated to do so. Here’s a sun-kissed selection from California that ranges from the light and easy to those with more gravitas, demonstrating that west coast whites are more diverse than ever—even within their historic categories of grape varieties.

Amulet Estate “AE” White Blend 2021, Napa Valley. This is a hand-harvested field blend harvested from the Proof Vineyard, one of the Napa Valley’s oldest, consisting of 55% Sauvignon Vert, 35% Semillon and 10% other white grapes. It is rich, round and full bodied with honeyed tones, beeswax and stone-orchard fruits ripened by late-summer sun. It will transition out of the portfolio this year in favor of a Sauvignon Blanc, so if you can find it, grab it.

Arkenstone Estate 2020, Howell Mountain, Napa. This blend of 94% Sauvignon Blanc and the rest Sémillon is a nod to the wines of Pessac-Léognan, the area in Graves (Bordeaux) that is the spiritual home of this delicious blend. This one, sourced from six blocks on the rocky Howell Mountain AVA (Graves derives its name from the very gravelly soil there, so this is a good “look-alike”), is tropical-fruit-inflected with notes of honeydew melon and sweet Clementines. Pretty white flowers give this a lilt. Aging on the lees in concrete egg gives the wine its roundness.

Cormorant Vermentino “Fenaughty Vineyards” 2023 El Dorado County. A fresh white from a line of small-production and intentional wines from Charlie Gilmore. Unfiltered and made in a low-invention Old-World style, this wine is balanced and faithful to its Italian flavor profile—fresh, spright citrus and mouth-cleansing acidity that keeps the enamel on your teeth.

Ferrari-Carano Pinot Grigio 2023, California. This is a fun, crisp counterpart to some of the watered-down versions that got out there when the PG category took off. This one is easy going and citrus-fruit forward. Don’t think too much about this: take it to the beach or have it as an aperitif on your patio. The similarly styled Fume Blanc from the North Coast is Sauvy-B oriented, with a tropical twist, but carries a similar thread of easy, fresh fruit and fun to drink.

Groth Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2022, Oakville, Napa. This estate wine is another that is Pessac-Léognan inspired, driven by 89% Sauvignon Blanc, with Sémillon making up the remainder. It’s the producer’s first white wine to carry the Oakville appellation. Textured, expressing a bit of salinity, it takes you through the whole taste spectrum of ripe tropical fruits—from skin (particularly yellow nectarine) to juicy pulp. Serve it to those who usually shy away from the green-gooseberry profile.

Quintessa “Illumination” Sauvignon Blanc 2016. Grapes for this wine are sourced from a combination of vineyards—64% Napa and 36% Sonoma counties. Find expressions of white orchard fruits and some of the tropics thrown in there, too. The very seductive nose draws you in and the juicy textured fruits—ripe yellow apple and quince and lemon compote—keep you there. While fine to drink now (especially the 2016), if you can hold off drinking this until fall, you will be rewarded. The attractive bottle makes this a nice “plus one” for a dinner party.

LangeTwins Fume Blanc 2022, Jahant AVA, Lodi, California. This is made from Musqué, a musky, floral and very aromatic clone of Sauvignon Blanc, which, in the wrong hands, can get overblown and kind of garish. But, aging for six months in French and American neutral oak toned down the drama. This version has those green notes, but also friendly tropical fruit and peach flesh. Not really a “twin,” but a close sibling, is the light and easy Chenin Blanc from the Clarksburg AVA (Merrill Vineyard), featuring a bright citrus ping, layered with notes of melon and ripe orchard-fruit skin.

Ram’s Gate Pinot Blanc 2022, Carneros, (Sonoma). Stylistically, this is a terrific hybrid of Old World styles from two under-the-radar high-quality regions: Alsace in the northeast section of France and Alto Adige in Italy’s northeast. I am thinking of yellow apples and plums ripening on a sun-speckled country kitchen counter, preferably made of weathered soapstone. OK, I digress! But you get the idea: nuanced, elegantly simple (or simply elegant!), with a pretty honeyed note and the rich pulp of ripe apricots. This also is a good transitional wine for cooler temperatures.

Unshackled Sauvignon Blanc 2021, California. Separate but part of the Prisoner Wine Co., this is a very servicable SauvB for people who don’t gravitate toward the pungent green styles of Marlborough or even Chile. This one is round and expressing more on the tropical side of the fruit spectrum. The Domaine Curry Sauvignon Blanc 2023 (Napa) is a foray into estate wine after Constellation Brands, PWC’s parent, acquired it in 2023 and rebranded it. I don’t know if the winemaking also underwent a transformation, but this current vintage blends grapes from Wappo Hill in the Stag’s Leap District and River Oaks in Alexander Valley, giving a tropical-fruit-inflected and forceful interpretation of Sauvy-B.

There was gold in these hills.

Hidden in the rugged Sierra Nevada amid sprawling pine forests, Havilah was once a bustling mining town where stamp mills pulverized rock from the region’s mines and prospectors panned for precious metals in the late 19th century.

In its heyday, the town’s main drag featured saloons, dance halls, inns and gambling houses. Townsfolk witnessed midday gunfights, manhunts for wanted murders and stagecoach robberies, and they wagered gold dust on horse races, according to Los Angeles Times archives.

But for nearly a century, long after the feverish search for gold subsided, Havilah had been considered something of a ghost town, with only about 150 residents. Foundations were all that remained of most of its historic buildings when fire swept through the town July 26.

The fast-moving Borel fire, which has scorched nearly 60,000 acres as of Friday, destroyed some of the last vestiges of Havilah in just 24 hours, including a replica courthouse, which served as a small roadside museum for decades.

Roy Fluhart, whose ancestors had homesteaded in the area around the Great Depression, had tried to preserve the town’s rich history. As president of Havilah’s historical society, he and his relatives helped curate the courthouse with historic documents and photographs, antique mining tools and other artifacts from the region’s past.

“We lost everything,” Fluhart said. “The sad part is, the museum was an archive, and it’s lost now. Son of a gun. … We didn’t really have time to get anything out.”

It wasn’t just the town’s history that was lost.

Bo Barnett, whose house was destroyed, managed to escape with his dogs and the clothes on his back. Barnett, whose wife died a month ago, expressed remorse that he didn’t have time to collect her ashes.

“Fire was raining down upon us,” Barnett said, as his eyes welled with tears. “I wasn’t sure what I was driving into. My tires were melting on the road. It was horrible.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who spent much of his childhood in the sparsely populated mining community of Dutch Flat in Placer County, lamented the loss of a fellow gold rush community on Tuesday. Wearing aviator sunglasses and a ball cap, he toured the wreckage in Havilah, walking up to the remnants of the town museum and pulling a novelty Uncle Sam coin bank from the blackened rubble.

“Towns wiped off the map — places, lifestyles, traditions,” Newsom said at a news conference. “That’s what this is really all about. At the end of the day, it’s about people, it’s about history, it’s about memories.”

In recent years, devastating wildfires have obliterated some of California’s gold rush towns, erasing the history of one of the most significant eras in 19th century America. Havilah joins the likes of Paradise and Greenville, small communities that saw influxes of prospectors, followed by population exodus and, more recently, devastation.

Havilah credits its origin to Asbury Harpending — a Kentuckian who plotted to seize California and its gold to support the Confederacy during the Civil War. In 1864, Harpending, indignant after his conviction for high treason, ventured to present-day Kern County’s Clear Creek region. He found deposits of gold and christened the area Havilah, after a gold-rich land in the book of Genesis.

Although Harpending had no land rights, he established a sprawling mining camp and sold parcels to incoming miners in what many believed could be a second gold rush. In 1866, Havilah became the seat of the newly established Kern County, a title it held for eight years until Bakersfield became the principal city. He stayed only two years but made a fortune: $800,000.

“I was literally chased from absolute poverty into the possession of nearly a million dollars,” Harpending wrote in his autobiography. “I discovered a great mining district and founded a thriving town. And if the matter of paternity is ever brought up in court, it will probably be proved to the satisfaction of a jury that I am the father of Kern County.”

As gold became harder to find, people deserted Havilah, and its buildings fell into disrepair. Those who remained attempted to commemorate the community’s mining legacy and pioneer heritage. In 1966, for the centennial of Havilah’s founding, residents finished building the replica courthouse. They later built a replica of the town’s schoolhouse, which doubled as a community center.

Historical markings along Caliente-Bodfish Road indicate buildings that once existed: barbershop, a blacksmith, the Grand Inn and a livery stable. Some large plaques also pay tribute to historic events such as the last stagecoach robbery in Kern County in 1869, in which a gunman made off with $1,700 in coinage and gold bullion.

Wesley Kutzner, a historical society member and Fluhart’s uncle, helped build the replica courthouse alongside his parents and other locals. Although the historical society couldn’t afford fire insurance, Kutzner said he has resolved to clean up the property and rebuild, the same way the community did nearly 60 years ago.

“The plan is to rebuild,” Kutzner said. “It’s going to be a community effort. It’s going to be a tough road home, but we’ll get it done.”

One resident who plans to rebuild is Sean Rains. He left Bakersfield two years ago and moved to Havilah with his girlfriend and their pit bull, seeking the tranquility of the mountains. Rains, a miner and countertop fabricator, had also been one of the few people holding onto hope of finding buried treasure in Havilah.

In his front yard, Rains kept a shaker table and other equipment to sift soil for flecks of gold.

It was “nothing to make us rich,” he said, but he did find some.

“They say it’s everywhere,” Rains said. “It’s just a matter of whether it’s enough to make it worth your while.”

Rains was also recruited into the historical society. He read old letters in which a sheriff had remarked that the town’s only pastimes were robbing stagecoaches and horse racing. Another recalled how pioneers hauled their carriages over the mountainous terrain by rope.

The historical society had recently installed a water hose at the replica schoolhouse. Because Rains lived nearby, he was asked to help defend the schoolhouse if there was ever a fire.

“I gave them my word,” he said.

So once Rains saw fire crest the mountaintop behind his home and swiftly descend into the valley, he rushed next door to start up the schoolhouse’s water pump. He sprayed down the building and extinguished embers under its front porch.

He eventually turned his attention to his own one-story house, dousing it until the trees in his yard caught fire. He, his girlfriend and their dog sped away in his pickup truck.

“It was licking our heels on the way out of here,” Rains recalled. “It was right on top of us. The winds were crazy in that thing, going in all different directions. It was sucking branches right off the trees. The whole mountain was engulfed.”

Rains returned to town the next morning, walking along Caliente-Bodfish Road to see what was left of Havilah.

The valley’s pines and oaks were charred, and much of the landscape was covered in white ash. Rains’ two-bedroom home was burned to its cobblestone foundation. Two cars he had been restoring were scorched husks. His two ATVs were reduced to skeletal frames.

The schoolhouse survived.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.