Steady Progress In Fighting Blaze Outside Yosemite
FRESNO (CBS13/AP) -- The five-day-old blaze that is prompting evacuations as it edges toward Yosemite National Park is a kink in what has otherwise been a relatively quiet fire season in California.
"This year we have not had very many large and damaging wildfires," said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. "The combination of cooperation from the weather and aggressive initial attacks have kept them small."
But with a change in seasons coming that usually triggers higher winds the most critical time is ahead.
"When summer ends, people think the danger goes down, but it's really the opposite," Berlant said.
The Motor Fire, so named because it was sparked when a motor home caught fire, is not the oldest fire burning in California. That distinction goes to the Lion Wildland fire burning in the backcountry of Sequoia National Forest and Sequoia National Park. More than 20,500 acres have burned since lightning struck July 8. Officials are monitoring the fire, but not aggressively fighting it.
The Motor Fire burning along the Highway 140 corridor in the Stanislaus National Forest leading to Yosemite was about one-third contained Monday. It has burned more than 4,775 acres -- or 7.5 square miles -- since it began Thursday. A 15-mile stretch of Highway 140 is scheduled to reopen Tuesday morning. The park has remained open to visitors traveling from highways 120 and 41.
Fire officials called for a firefighting plane, a modified DC-10, from Sacramento's McClellan Air Base on Sunday and it is on standby. The plane can drop 12,000 gallons of retardant in ten seconds.
The area of Old El Portal, a compound of private homes on national forest land, is under threat of evacuation. Already campgrounds and trailer parks in the area have been ordered closed, as well as the Rancheria, a compound of about 70 homes leased to employees of Yosemite National Park.
The El Portal School is closed.
The steep canyon terrain has made it difficult for firefighters on the ground. It has blackened the scenic Merced River Canyon to the top of the ridges on both sides of the canyon.
More than 800 firefighters have saved 70 homes, two commercial properties and 35 outbuildings, said Kass Hardy, a National Park Service fire spokeswoman.
Aerial drops of fire retardant also saved an historic fire lookout on Trumbull Peak that was built in 1935.
The fire has not affected Yosemite National Park, where stunning vistas of Half Dome and El Capitan have not been obscured by smoke, said park spokesman Scott Gediman.
Park officials are suggesting tourists traveling to Yosemite take Highway 120 or 41 instead. Tioga Road is also open for visitors entering the park on Highway 395.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
