FRESNO, California (AP) ― A wildfire raging along the northwest edge of California’s Yosemite National Park gained strength Saturday morning as firefighters scrambled to protect nearby mountain communities.
The fire held steady overnight at more than 500 square kilometers, but a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says firefighters didn’t get their usual reprieve from cooler early morning temperatures Saturday.
“This morning we are starting to see fire activity pick up earlier than it has the last several days,” said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. “Typically, it doesn’t really heat up until early afternoon. We could continue to see this fire burn very rapidly today.”
The Rim Fire started in a remote canyon of the Stanislaus National Forest a week ago and is just 5 percent contained. More than 2,600 firefighters and a half dozen aircraft are battling the blaze.
More than 5,500 homes are threatened, four have been destroyed and voluntary and mandatory evacuations are underway.
The fire has grown so large and is burning dry timber and brush with such ferocity that it has created its own weather pattern, making it difficult to predict in which direction it will move.
After burning for nearly a week on the edges of Yosemite, the fire moved into the northwest boundary of the park Friday. The tourist mecca of Yosemite Valley, the part of the park known around the world for such sights as the Half Dome and El Capitan rock formations and waterfalls, remained open, clear of smoke and free from other signs of the fire that remained about 30 kilometers away.
Dry fuel and hot weather have combined already to make this the 16th-largest fire in California’s history.
This has been a particularly busy fire season in California and throughout the West because a lack of winter rains and snow have left forests extremely dry.
This year so far Cal Fire and the U.S. Department of Forestry have fought 5,700 fires, compared with 4,900 by this date last year.
The fire is burning within 6 kilometers of the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, where San Francisco gets 85 percent of its water and some of its power. California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency because of the threats.
The city has so far been able to buy power on the open market and use existing supplies of water, but disruptions or damage could have an effect, according to city power officials and the governor’s statement.
While smoke is not present in Yosemite Valley, across the Sierra into neighboring Nevada smoke warnings have forced cancellation of some outdoor events.
Park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said that the park had stopped issuing backcountry permits to backpackers and had warned those who already had them to stay out of the area.
