After battling the Rim Fire in and around Yosemite National Park for nearly two weeks, firefighters were buoyed to see the blaze slow for the second straight day -- but they have not yet declared victory.
The fire spread at about 300 acres an hour Thursday, though planned burnouts in Yosemite pushed numbers higher in the afternoon after the number of acres barely budged overnight. By sundown, the inferno reached nearly 200,000 acres -- bigger than San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland combined -- and became the fifth-largest blaze in 81 years of California recorded fire history, surpassing the 2007 Witch Fire in San Diego County, which destroyed 1,650 structures and killed two people.
But the growth was still
A CalTrans worker takes a break during a tree cutting operation in an area that was burned by the Rim Fire, August 28, 2013 near Groveland, California. (Justin Sullivan / Getty)
far below the explosive rate seen last week, when the fire was spreading at 3,000 acres an hour during its apex. Fire containment grew to 32 percent, up from 30 percent, and the evacuation advisories were lifted Thursday for nearby Tuolumne City and two small communities: Soulsbyville and Willow Springs.Cal Fire says the cooling temperatures, rising humidity and constant work from 4,900 firefighters to dig dirt lines to contain the fire all combined to help slow the flames.Still, temperatures were expected to rise again Friday, with the humidity forecast to drop, said Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant. That would make it easier for the flames to spread and could exhaust firefighters in the field, he said.Dick Fleishman, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, which is leading the response with Cal Fire, said all it would take for the fire to explode again is to reach the base of a hill, where it can race upward or into a canyon that would act like a chimney."That potential is still out there," Fleishman said. "There's a lot of work that still needs to be done."The estimate for full containment of the blaze was pushed back from two to three weeks.Acting California Gov. Darrell Steinberg, the state Senate president pro tem, on Thursday declared a state of emergency for Mariposa County, to the south of Tuolumne County. Gov. Jerry Brown, who along with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom was out of the state Thursday, had declared emergencies last week in Tuolumne County and San Francisco, which controls the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite.The Rim Fire is named for the Rim of the World vista point off Highway 120 west of Yosemite, close to where the blaze first sparked. It now has cost $47 million to fight.The Yosemite Conservancy announced it was launching a fundraising campaign to help restore trails and lost habitat in the tens of thousands of acres in the park that have been burned since the fire began on Aug. 17."We anticipate that significant work will be needed to restore areas affected in the park once the heroic efforts of firefighters are completed," conservancy president Mike Tollefson said in a statement.Even still, the vast majority of the park remains unaffected as the smoke drifts north toward Lake Tahoe and away from Yosemite Valley. Park officials have insisted Labor Day weekend travelers keep their reservations, though the Bay Bridge and the main route to the park from the Bay Area, Highway 120, remained closed Thursday as one of the busiest traffic weekends of the year approached.A desk clerk at Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel said Thursday that many people were canceling their reservations and that there are rooms available for the weekend. August is normally the park's busiest month.Supporters of the San Jose Family Camp, the city-run Yosemite camp that was damaged during the fire and closed for the rest of the fall season, are also raising funds. The nonprofit Friends of San Jose Family Camp hopes volunteers can fix up the camp in time for it to reopen next spring."We are qualified and have done this work in the past," said Tom Bonsack, the group's vice president. "That way it keeps the cost to the campers down."City officials say with the fire still smoldering at the campsite, it's too soon to know whether a professional contractor will be needed to rebuild or how much it would cost."We can't even get in there," said San Jose parks superintendent Art Catbagan. "I'm a long ways before walking in and doing any repairs."
Although the fire has reached the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, the source of drinking water for 2.6 million Bay Area residents and businesses, officials reiterated Thursday that the ash falling on the surface has had no impact on water quality. Firefighters remain on site to protect the reservoir and water and power infrastructure on the western edge of the park.
Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705. Follow him at twitter.com/RosenbergMerc