Posted on 07/23/2022 2:34:46 PM PDT by DFG
A fast-moving brush fire near Yosemite National Park exploded in size Saturday into one of California's largest wildfires of the year, prompting evacuation orders for thousands of people and shutting off power to more than 2,000 homes and businesses.
The Oak Fire started Friday afternoon southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County and by Saturday morning had rapidly grown to 10.2 square miles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
'Fire activity is extreme,' Cal Fire said in a situation report on Saturday, noting that the wildfire is at zero percent containment. 'Explosive fire behavior is challenging firefighters.'
The origin of the wildfire is under investigation. It erupted as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite park.
Evacuation orders were put in effect Saturday for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span in the sparsely populated, rural area, said Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest.
Cal Fire described the Oak Fire's activity as 'extreme with frequent runs, spot fires and group torching.'
By Saturday morning, the fire had destroyed 10 residential and commercial structures, damaged five others and was threatening 2,000 more structures, Cal Fire said.
The blaze prompted numerous road closures, including a shutdown of Highway 140 between Carstens Road and Allred Road - blocking one of the main routes into Yosemite.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The fuel load is 3 generations of dead trees stacked criss-cross on top of each other like giant pick up sticks about 3-4 feet thick.
I know because I mistakenly entered an unlocked gate that led into a designated wilderness area while riding my atv on an ohv road in the Sierra NF, southwest of Mammoth Lakes, CA, that completely burned up in the Creek Fire- CA’s single largest fire in its history.
The fuel load when calculated for an acre, contained 80,000 rounds the size of a washing machine drum. Exacerbating things, the bark beetle had killed off approximately 50% of the standing trees in an infestation kill-off in 2015.
I was unofficially deputized by virtue of working at a resort that wildland firefighters saved from the Creek Fire, and supported their needs with water taxi shuttles, labor, logistics, propane service, wifi, etc.
The Oak Fire comes on top of the nearby Washburn Fire, just a stone’s throw away from each other.
I lived in Calif. for a little while in the early 70s.
I thought it pretty close to a Utopia.
Never gave it any thought at the time, but it turns out the Gipper had been and was governator then.
Twosome is certainly no Governor Reagan.
I was in San Jose from 76-85 growing up.
It was great. Perfect weather, playing outside all day, and eating from our tangerine tree whenever I wanted a snack.
Liberals ruin everything...
Agreed. Liberals ruin everything. Hard to ruin a place like San Diego or Temecula but they did it.
Fifty years ago students in Forestry learned timber management which included not only silviculture but also the role of fire in the environment, controlled burns and how to set them for maximum effectiveness.
Then, the proponents of Rachel Carson took over, and from that point on every technique that had kept our forests healthy and productive was thrown out the window.
You wrote: "The fuel load when calculated for an acre, contained 80,000 rounds the size of a washing machine drum"
Most people don't have a good grasp on the size of an acre. It is a square only 209 feet on a side. 80,000 pounds of fuel in that small area is staggering.
or an illegal with matches? or someone else with a h**d-on against whitey?
Ouch!
I love Priest Lake. My daughter and SIL had a beautiful house there and I went up four times a year to spend a week with them. Two sons of a friend of theirs are in the forest service there. Nice kids.
Daughter and SIL just sold their gorgeous. home and moved further north to Kettle Falls WA. Also just beautiful, remote area just a few miles from the Columbia River. They bought huge property, will build.. Water Witch was there last week checking their underground water. Wonderful all over the property. They can build anywhere. So I think fire risk there is low. Plus they have their own woods on the property, can keep undergrowth cleared out.
I wonder if the Rothschild space laser is at work.
And while the bark beetles and drought were killing trees, CA was still paying people to kill trees in the forest to create nesting sites for birds.
We really, really need to quit listening to these communist. They do not care about the environment, salmon, air pollution. Strictly economic destruction. All democrats
“I wonder if the Rothschild space laser is at work.”
Just ...stop.
That kind of bat@#$t crazy talk does nothing but tar the ENTIRE political right as a bunch of country bumpkins with political ideals as laughable and invalid as their claims to have seen UFOs or Sasquatch.
All you accomplish with nuttery like that is hand your political enemies a stick they’ll use to beat the crap out of you.
Sounds wonderful. We get lots of food at our farmer’s market in Hayden from the Kettle Falls, WA area.
Dude, I was being sarcastic!
Well, I’m glad of that; way too often folks posting that kind of content are bug-eyed serious.
I’ll consider myself suckered by your uber-incognito sarc tags.
The space laser theory is as absurd as the climate change theory for forest and brush fires.
I have lived in Southern California my whole life and brush fires have been happening since time and memorium. It is a natural phenomenon known as the “chapparell sweep” that has been going on for thousands of years. East coast liberal idiots keep trying to argue climate change which is foolish and ignorant on their part.
Anaheim Hills
Class of ‘65
Ditto everything you said.
You have some years on me there but that is cool.
It is amazing how disinformation spreads like wildfire. From 2004-2014, I lived in Florida and people believed the BS climate change theory with brush fires, even people from “our side” and it was frustrating.
I go back far enough it wasn’t even “Anaheim Hills” when I moved in. In fact, they changed the ZIP code from 92806 to 92807 while I was in grade school.
We had a big picture window looking out across Santa Ana Canyon with a panoramic view of the all the way across to the snow-capped San Gabriel mountains; from Mt. Wilson to Mt. Baldy. I remember being able to see the fires up in Tujunga, and we had ashfall — including intact pieces of black grass — from the big one in Bel Air.
Lotta folks don’t know, but there were several years back in the ‘70’s we had fairly impressive springtime thunderstorms with actually decent lightning; not just the usual heavy rain. NOT like in the Midwest, of course; SoCal lightning was never actually SCARY, but spectacular enough to stop your evening, get a chair near a window, and watch the show.
I sometimes think I oughta write a bunch of this stuff down before history becomes legend, and legend becomes myth.
I can remember when the Sumotomo Bank building on the corner of Bristol and Sunflower in Santa Ana was the tallest building in Orange County. Following that it was the South Coast Plaza Hotel and Imperial Bank Building.
It is amazing how Orange County has sprawled so much for the decades.
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