 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
Thousands of residents have fled their homes as firefighters battle a raging wildfire near California’s Yosemite National Park.
About 2,000 firefighters as well as aircraft and bulldozers battled the Oak blaze in sweltering temperatures and low humidity, The Associated Press quoted California Department of Forestry and Fires Protection, or Cal Fire as saying.
“It’s hot
out there again today,” Cal Fire spokesperson Natasha Fouts said Sunday. “And
the fuel moisture levels are critically low.”
Tankers
dropped retardants on 50-foot (15-meter) flames travelling along ridge tops
east of the tiny community of Jerseydale.
The Yosemite
National Park fire got worse Saturday, prompting evacuations. Firefighters have
been battling the wildfire that burned to the edge of a grove of giant
sequoias.
How the wildfire near Yosemite all began
The Oak Fire
began Friday afternoon southwest of the park near Midpines in Mariposa County,
The Associated Press reports. The blaze quickly grew to 10.2 square miles (26.5
square kilometers) by Saturday morning, a statement from the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protections, or Cal Fire said.
“Explosive
fire behavior is challenging firefighters,” Cal Fire said in a statement
Saturday morning describing the fire situation as “extreme with frequent runs,
spot fires and group torching.”
The fire
destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures and damaged five more as of
Saturday morning, The Associated Press quoted a report by the Mercury News.
Caltrans reportedly shut down numerous roads, and Highway 140 between Carstens
Road and Alfred Road – blocking one of the main routes into Yosemite National
Park.
Over 6000 people have been evacuated in areas near Yosemite after deadly wildfire
The deadly
blaze had consumed more than 22 square miles (56 square km) of forest land,
according to Cal Fire. Evacuations are in place for over 6,000 people living
across a several-mile span of the sparsely populated area in the Sierra Nevada
foothills, The Associated Press quoted Adrienne Freeman with the U.S. Forest
Service.
“We urge
people to evacuate when told,” she said. “This fire is moving very fast.”