Mariposa Forest Fire Raging Out of Control, Threatens Yosemite: 200 Residents Leave Homes but Park Remains Open

By Wesley DeBerry, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Jul. 27–A forest fire burning out of control near an entrance to Yosemite National Park has forced the evacuation of 500 homes, but has not closed the park, authorities said Sunday.

In less than 48 hours since the Telegraph Fire in Mariposa County started Friday near the community of Midpines, it has burned 18,150 acres of woodlands, destroyed eight homes and seven out-buildings, said Daniel Berlant, a California Department of Fire and Forestry Protection spokesman.

Berlant said firefighters have made much better progress Sunday than a day earlier, primarily because more than 2,000 firefighters are on the scene. On Saturday, the blaze spread from 1,000 to 16,000 acres, fed by plenty of fuel in areas that haven’t been touched by fire in 100 years, and extreme dry conditions.

Berlant said the fire is believed to have been sparked by the ricochet of a bullet during target shooting, lthough the cause remains under investigation.

Nonetheless, he said that should remind people how dry conditions are and that extreme fire danger conditions are in effect.

Meanwhile, officials at Yosemite National Park said they haven’t had to close it because of buffer zones of five to 10 miles between the fire and the national park. The fire is southwest of the national park.

Toby Briggs, a federal park ranger, said the Yosemite will remain open “unless conditions change.”

But power has been cut to the park, and that is affecting conditions are hotels and rentals.

At Yosemite’s Four Seasons Vacation Rentals some guests decided to stay while others left.

“It’s hard to maintain a degree of normalcy without power,” said office assistant Brooke Biery.

Four Seasons has reserved its generators to provide power for phones, offices, washing machines and ice machines.

However, keeping food from spoiling has been a constant struggle.

Biery said the food has “probably” already spoiled.

“With so many guests, we don’t have enough generators to power everything,” Biery said.

Biery said the fire is “about 40 miles away and appears to be burning in the opposite direction.”

Officials said when the fire broke, it took two different routes. On the north, it jumped the Merced River. Sunday the fire was threatening homes south of Greeley Hill, according to Mariposa County Sheriff Brian Muller.

Officials said most of the homes that burned were in Midpines, a town of 600 residents. Muller said 300 homes were evacuated there, and about 200 others were evacuated in the areas of French Camp and Grosjean.

Authorities were concerned that the fire was moving in the direction of Mariposa, which has 1,800 residents.

CalFire officials said as many as 2,000 may be evacuated this week, depending on the course of the fire.

Earlier Sunday, CalFire reported making major gains in fighting forest fires in California.

Since lightning strikes June 20 ignited nearly 2,100 fires, state and federal firefighters and firefighters from throughout the United States and several nations had fully contained 98 percent of them, Berlant reported Sunday.

The Butte complex fire was 98 percent contained.

So far, fires have consumed more than 1 million acres of woodlands, the CDF said.

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