Yosemite fire rapidly grows to 2,600 acres

At the Wawona road tunnel, tourists pulled over to take photos of the giant plume of smoke rising above Yosemite National Park Thursday afternoon. Maggie Beck/Union Democrat, copyright 2009

The Big Meadow Fire was ignited Wednesday morning as a 90-acre prescribed burn. By early this morning, it had scorched 2,600 acres, according to Yosemite officials.
  

“It’s a horrible situation,” said Gary Wuchner, Yosemite fire spokesman.

The about 100 residents and visitors of the Foresta area, which the prescribed burn was meant to protect, were evacuated before the sun rose on Thursday. Highway 120, also known as Big Oak Flat Road, is closed from Crane Flat to its junction with El Portal Road.

David Rocker, who was staying at his vacation home in Foresta, left the area Wednesday for a picnic to avoid what was supposed to be a day-long prescribed burn.

But late in his leisurely day, he noticed the smoke column building above the fire. He drove back to his home because his yellow Labrador, Chloe, was still there.

Chloe is safe now— she was lapping water from her dish in the back of Rocker’s car on Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve heard one house’s deck was lost,” Rocker said, adding that his home so far has been spared from the flames.

Shortly after the prescribed burn was set on Wednesday morning in a large meadow northeast of Foresta, it escaped the burn’s boundaries when the wind picked up and sent embers flying, Wuchner said.

“It got out of control when one cedar tree took off and cast embers into a lot of dry fuel,” Wuchner said. “Then the winds changed direction, to the west, and the fire crossed Big Oak Flat and Foresta roads.”

Wuchner was trying to stay positive on Thursday — explaining that unlike the 1990 A-Rock Fire, which scorched large trees in the same area, the current fire was being fed by fuels along the ground.

On Thursday, turnouts along Wawona Road were jammed with tourists observing the fire’s rapid spread across the stumpy forest and the vibrant cloud of smoke hovering over it.

“It’s exciting but sad,” said Laurie Larson, of San Pedro. “You don’t want to see a controlled burn get out of control.”

Sharon Griffiths, visiting from Reading, Pa., was atop Half Dome watching the prescribed burn begin to get out of control on Wednesday.

“You could see the smoke beginning to really come off the fire,” she said.

Resources from across the state have shifted to the blaze as quickly as it has grown. As of Thursday, 500 firefighters, three helicopters, four air tankers and 24 fire engines were fighting the flames.

Included in the personnel is an interagency team headed by Stanislaus National Forest Division Chief Alan Johnson. Forest Service Hotshot crews from all over the state are fighting the blaze.   

On Thursday, air tankers were disappearing into the cloud of smoke to make fire-retardant drops on the fire. Simultaneously, helicopters, sucking water from the Merced River near El Portal, made water drops on the perimeter of the fire. Dozers cut fire lines along the fire’s southern edge.

The smoke seemed to be blowing away from Yosemite Valley, which was relatively clear considering the growing blaze bordering it. Late in the day, along El Portal Road just outside of the valley, the landscape had a golden hue from the blanketing smoke.

Wuchner said, unfortunately, hindsight is not a tool the fire crews can use to douse the flames.

“We are trying to take advantage of not having very many fires in the state,” he said of the large force congregating to extinguish the fire.