A wildfire raging along the northwest edge of Yosemite National Park gained strength Saturday morning as firefighters scrambled to protect nearby mountain communities.
The fire held steady overnight at nearly 200 square miles, 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 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.
“As the smoke column builds up it breaks down and collapses inside of itself, sending downdrafts and gusts that can go in any direction,” Berlant said. “There’s a lot of potential for this one to continue to grow.”
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 20 miles away.
The fire is burning toward the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, where San Francisco gets 85 percent of its water and power for municipal buildings, the international airport and San Francisco General Hospital. Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency because of the threats.
Officials with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission are running continuous tests on water quality in the reservoir that is the source of the city’s famously pure water.
Deputy General Manager Michael Carlin said Saturday that they fear ash could fall into the reservoir and cause a federal water quality violation. No problems were noted by Saturday morning.
Carlin said that ash is non-toxic, but it can create a cloudiness that would force the city to enact filtering contingency plans on water stored in reservoirs in the Bay Area.
“So far the fire is still two-to-three miles below O’Shaughnessy Dam,” Carlin said. “We’ve had other fires in the watershed and have procedures in place.”
The commission also shut two hydro-electric stations fed by water from the reservoir and cut power to more than 12 miles of lines. Carlin said they didn’t know Saturday whether the lines were destroyed.
While smoke is not present in Yosemite Valley, across the Sierra into neighboring Nevada smoke warnings have forced cancellation of some outdoor events.
On Friday, officials issued voluntary evacuation advisories for two California towns — Tuolumne City, population 1,800, and Ponderosa Hills, a community of several hundred — which are about five miles from the fire line, Forest Service spokesman Jerry Snyder said.
About the Author