Fast-moving wildfire near Yosemite forces thousands to evacuate [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• A wildfire near Yosemite National Park explodes in size, forcing thousands to evacuate.
• CalFire said that the fire in Mariposa, California has engulfed 11,900 acres of land and was zero percent contained.
• More than 2,000 firefighters have been deployed against the Oak Fire which led to the evacuation of about 6,000 people.

A wildfire near Yosemite National Park blazes through the Sierra National Forest, forcing about 6,000 people to evacuate their homes in Mariposa, California.

The Oak Fire had burned approximately 11,900 acres of land, with thousands of residents living within a 54-square-mile evacuation zone told to flee the remote mountain communities.

“It’s hot out there again today,” Cal Fire spokesperson Natasha Fouts said Sunday. “And the fuel moisture levels are critically low.”

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire, stated that the blaze had destroyed 10 buildings and endangered another 2,693.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire. The fire department believes that extreme drought conditions have caused the critical fuel moisture levels in the region. 

More than 2,000 firefighters were deployed to fight the blaze using 225 engines, 23 water tenders, and 17 helicopters,  according to Jaime Williams, a public information officer for CalFire, per the San Francisco Chronicle.

Fire activity picked up on Saturday afternoon as temperatures in the area increased, the fire department said.

Daniel Patterson, a spokesman for the Sierra National Forest, pointed to climate change as the reason for rising temperatures in the area, which has led to droughts and increasing numbers of wildfires.

The state has suffered from increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires as climate change has made the West hotter and drier over the past 30 years. Experts have warned that the weather will continue to be more extreme. Wildfires will be more frequent, destructive, and unpredictable, scientists added.

“Climate change, with rising temperatures and shifts in precipitation patterns, is amplifying the risk of wildfires,” the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has previously said. 

The U.S. Forest Service announced Friday that it had to take emergency steps to save giant sequoia groves from wildfires. The agency is aims to clear underbrush to protect the world’s largest trees from the continuing threat of wildfires.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County due to the Oak Fire’s effects.

Source: CBS News