The so-called Rim Fire had burned about 134,000 acres as of late Sunday —
about 9,000 acres more than it had the previous day — making it the
14th largest fire since California began keeping records on wildfires in
1932 and the second largest in Tuolumne County.
Officials said that firefighters had contained about 7 percent of the
fire, which began just over a week ago, and that it had caused no loss
of life or significant property damage. And although the fire has burned
some acreage in Yosemite, the most visited area of the park, the
Yosemite Valley, is not threatened so far, officials said.
Despite its size, the fire has not threatened population centers or
heavily trafficked parts of Yosemite, but it was more the potential of
the fire than the actual damage so far that spurred officials into
action. Officials said that the fire tripled in size from Wednesday to
Thursday and then doubled again from Thursday to Friday.
Even though the spread of the fire had slowed by Sunday, officials said
that it was still growing, and that they worried that strong winds could
whip the blaze into unpredictable directions and further endanger
firefighters.
“We’ve had success to the west,” said Jerry Snyder, a spokesman for the
federal Forest Service, “but the north is still expanding.”
Nearly 3,000 firefighters are involved, some brought in from as far away
as Florida, officials said, and the Forest Service has deployed nine
helicopters.
State and local officials prepared for the possibility of home
evacuations and disruptions to public utilities. The weekend began with a
declaration by Gov. Jerry Brown of a state of emergency for San
Francisco County.
Many eyes were on the status of public utilities in the Bay Area, about
140 miles west of Yosemite. The San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission said on Sunday that the fire had not affected the Hetch
Hetchy Reservoir, which supplies water to 2.6 million customers. That
reservoir accounts for 85 percent of San Francisco’s water supply, but
the commission emphasized in a statement that it also had “a large
supply” of water stored in local reservoirs.
“We are monitoring water quality every minute of each day to ensure its quality and safety,” the utility said.
Tuolumne County officials announced that all schools would be closed on
Monday and Tuesday, mere days after the school year began. Most schools
in the county opened on Wednesday.
“We felt it’s the safest for the kids to close the schools,” said Joseph
A. Silva Jr., the Tuolumne County schools superintendent, citing both
the air quality and the amount of equipment, like fire trucks and
bulldozers, around the schools closest to the fire. He said the decision
was made in conjunction with the multiagency incident command for the
Rim Fire, a public health officer and the county’s Air Pollution Control
District.
The fire has also caused economic concerns in Tuolumne County, which
stretches from about 30 miles west of Yosemite almost to the eastern
edge of the park. Because a majority of the county’s land area is inside
the park, its economy is heavily reliant on tourism.
One store owner, Dan Vaughn of Pinecrest General Store, told The Sacramento Bee that sales had dropped by 95 percent since the fire began.
Residents in Pine Mountain Lake, on the southwestern side of the fire,
were being allowed to return to their homes on Sunday afternoon after a
mandatory evacuation order. As that was happening, four or five homes in
a sparsely populated area to the southeast of the fire were put under a
mandatory evacuation order, Mr. Snyder said, and residents of Tuolumne
City and Ponderosa Hills to the northwest were under an evacuation
advisory as the fire continued to spread in that direction.
As of Sunday afternoon, the fire had destroyed 23 structures, including
at least 4 homes, officials said. But there were no reports of deaths or
injuries.
The largest wildfire in California’s history was the 273,246-acre Cedar
Fire in October 2003, which killed 15 people. The largest in Tuolumne
County was the Stanislaus Complex Fire in August 1987, which burned
145,980 acres and killed one person.
The fear is that the current fire may eclipse the county’s record before being knocked down.
“You can look for the size to change upward,” said Mr. Snyder of the Forest Service.
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