California wildfire burns out of control near Yosemite

MIDPINES, Calif. (AP) — A destructive wildfire near Yosemite National Park burned out of control Sunday and has grown into one of California’s biggest blazes of the year, forcing thousands of residents to flee remote mountain communities.

Some 2,000 firefighters were battling the Oak Fire, along with aircraft and bulldozers, facing tough conditions that included steep terrain and spiking temperatures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.

“It’s hot out there again today,” Cal Fire spokesperson Natasha Fouts said Sunday. “And the fuel moisture levels are critically low.”

Light winds were blowing embers ahead into tree branches “and because it’s so dry, it’s easy for the spot fires to get established and that’s what fuels the growth,” Fouts said.

The blaze erupted Friday southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County. Officials described “explosive fire behavior” Saturday as flames made runs through bone-dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades.

By Sunday, the blaze had consumed more than 22 square miles of forest land, with no containment, Cal Fire said. The cause was under investigation.

Evacuations were in place for more than 6,000 people living across a several-mile span of the sparsely populated area in the Sierra Nevada foothills, though a handful of residents defied the orders and stayed behind, said Adrienne Freeman with the U.S. Forest Service.

“We urge people to evacuate when told,” she said. “This fire is moving very fast.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County due to the fire’s effects.

Flames destroyed at least 10 residential and commercial structures and damaged five others, Cal Fire said. Assessment teams were moving through mountain towns to check for additional damage, Fouts said.

Some residents, including the Ward family, learned their homes were destroyed through media online.

“This home that we had just gotten married at two weeks ago, it explodes and you’re looking at it on a mobile phone,” Steve Ward told NewsNation affiliate KSEE.

Numerous roads were closed, including a stretch of State Route 140 that’s one of the main routes into Yosemite.

California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable.

Chad Hanson, co-founder of the John Muir Project, said hot, dry and windy weather continues to fuel blazes across the country. And as those threats persist, officials must take a different approach to wildfire management.

“We have to focus our attention and our resources on protecting communities (from) wildfire and not trying to stop them out in dangerous wildland conditions where it puts firefighters’ lives unnecessarily in risk,” Hanson said. “When you have hot, dry and windy conditions, you really can’t stop those fires, and increasingly the focus is on the communities and helping people and their animals evacuate.”

Pacific Gas & Electric said on its website that more than 3,100 homes and businesses in the area had lost power as of Sunday and there was no indication when it would be restored.

“PG&E is unable to access the affected equipment,” the utility said as flames roared Friday.

The Oak Fire was sparked as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze, the Washburn Fire, that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. The 7.5-square-mile fire was nearly 80% contained after burning for two weeks and moving into the Sierra National Forest.