Several wildfires have been reported around California and one of them has crept close to the Yosemite National Park, prompting the evacuation of over 1,500 people from the area.
According to the Madera County Sheriff's Office, homes and business establishments have been evacuated in Oakhurst, a community located around 16 miles away from one of the entrances to the Yosemite National Park. Another 3,000 have been notified of the fire by phone but not all those people were advised to leave their homes. Consequently, classes have also been cancelled for majority of the Yosemite Unified School District while State Route 41 heading towards the national park was also closed to travelers going to Yosemite will have to use different routes to get inside.
State fire officials say the wildfire has burned through 1,200 acres of land already but its cause is still unknown.
The fire has also dangerously strayed close to a propane business housing 30,000 tanks on site, making firefighters wary of the risk of explosions but at the same time trying their hardest to save the establishment. State fire division chief Don Stein said firefighters will stay on the site as long as possible but safety is also an issue.
Aside from a couple of structures burning, no injuries have been reported related to the blaze.
Evacuations have also been ordered in Kern Country situated 50 miles northeast of Bakersfield when a surging wildfire Monday has surged to 3,000 acres and threatened buildings. The same is also happening near Lake Isabella where Wofford Heights is also dealing with a fire that has grown to 800 acres.
Both fires have burned structures but it hasn't been made clear if these were homes or business establishments and how many exactly have been affected.
Northeast of Los Angeels, 200 people have been forcibly evacuated when a 275-acre wildfire threatened recreational areas and a campground.
The wildfire that broke out above the Glendora foothill community Sunday afternoon has been 40 percent contained by Monday, thanks to an aggressive ground and air response. Only smoking embers remain where a blaze used to be.
The largest wildfire in California was reported in 2003. Called Cedar, the fire was of human-related causes, consuming 273,246 acres in the process. More than 2,800 structures were affected and the death toll was 14. Surprisingly, the second-largest wildfire in the state, Rush, caused zero damage to structures and didn't claim lives either. Rush was caused by lightning in 2012 and went on to affect 271,911 acres in California and 43,666 acres in Nevada.
