Fire crews battling to outflank a monster wildfire inside Yosemite National Park made more headway yesterday in confining flames to the wilderness areas but were powerless to save the area’s tourist economy towards the end of its peak summer travel season.
By morning, the tally of charred landscape from the so-called Rim Fire surpassed 82 hectares, three-quarters of that in the Stanislaus National Forest west of the park, fire officials said.
But a second straight night of cooling temperatures and higher humidity helped firefighters extend containment lines around nearly a third of the fire’s perimeter by the start of its 14th day.
“I can’t say we’ve turned a corner just yet, but we are making very good progress,” US Forest Service spokesman Dick Fleishman said. “We’re going to keep chugging away.”
With an overall footprint that now exceeds the land mass of Kansas City, Missouri, the blaze ranks as the fifth-largest California wildfire on record. In terms of acreage burned, it also stands as the largest of dozens of wildfires that have raged across several states in the drought-parched west this year, straining US firefighting resources.
The fire has destroyed dozens of homes and cabins in the region, but no serious injuries have been reported. (Reuters)