Residents returning as firefighters slow California blaze

A child’s burned bicycle on Tuesday sits at a house destroyed by a wildfire outside Oakhurst, Calif.
A child’s burned bicycle on Tuesday sits at a house destroyed by a wildfire outside Oakhurst, Calif.

OAKHURST, Calif. -- Officials said Tuesday evening that they had gained the upper hand on a central California blaze in the foothills near Yosemite National Park that forced more than 1,000 residents to flee their homes.

State fire spokesman Chris Christopherson said Tuesday afternoon that the wildfire near Oakhurst in Madera County burned less than a square mile, revising earlier estimates of about twice that size.

The fire began Monday near the town about 16 miles from Yosemite, forcing the evacuations of more than 1,000 people overnight.

The blaze, which destroyed eight buildings, was 30 percent contained, officials said Tuesday evening. Some residents were being allowed to return home, but it was not immediately clear how many.

Drivers also were allowed back on State Route 41, a road to the park that had been closed.

Additional firefighters were sent in earlier Tuesday to attack the blaze, which was fueled by gusty winds and dry brush, with embers flying ahead up to half a mile.

"We're not seeing the fire expand like we thought," Madera County Sheriff John Anderson said.

Mandatory evacuation orders had been sent to about 1,000 people, and another 4,000 were told to prepare to leave their homes, sheriff's spokesman Erica Stuart said. The park was not affected.

The fire comes amid California's third straight year of drought, creating dry conditions that have significantly increased the fire danger around the state and sent firefighters scrambling from blaze to blaze.

Evacuated residents in Oakhurst had braced for the worst.

"There is nothing you can do when a fire is raging," said Clement Williams, 67. "You just have to flee. It's a real sinking feeling."

Williams and his wife, Gretchen Williams, 63, were trying to get information about the fire and their home from officials. They spent Monday night at a nearby hotel and casino.

Wes Qualls, 50, was visiting Yosemite from Katy, Texas, with his wife and 9-year-old son, but they were cut off from their motel in Oakhurst by the fire. They found a room in a nearby town but planned to cut the trip short.

"I was one of the lucky ones," he said. "Some people spent the night in their cars."

The fire comes on the heels of another blaze around Yosemite this summer and last year's Rim Fire, which raged for two months across 400 square miles of land including part of Yosemite National Park. The Rim Fire threatened thousands of structures, destroyed 11 homes and cost more than $125 million to fight.

Last month's fire threatened about 100 homes and sent smoke into Yosemite's famed valley before firefighters got it under control.

Meanwhile, a blaze that began Monday some 50 miles northeast of Bakersfield, Calif., surged Tuesday to nearly 5 square miles, or 3,195 acres.

"It burned north, south and east," said Cindy Thill, a fire spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service. "It went uphill and downhill at the same time."

The fire burning near Lake Isabella in Kern County led authorities to recommend the evacuation of about 200 homes in several neighborhoods, the Forest Service said. A Red Cross evacuation center was set up at Kern Valley High School in Lake Isabella.

Some structures burned in that fire, but it wasn't immediately clear how many or if any were homes, Thill said.

More than 450 firefighters with air support were battling the flames in steep terrain amid low humidity and high temperatures.

Northeast of Los Angeles, crews made quick work of a 274-acre wildfire that forced the evacuation of 200 people from a campground and recreational areas. The blaze that broke out Sunday above the foothill community of Glendora was 80 percent contained by Tuesday afternoon and largely reduced to smoking embers.

Information for this article was contributed by Chris Weber and Sudhin Thanawala of The Associated Press.

A Section on 08/20/2014

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