Thick smoke rises as the Rim Fire burns near the border of Yosemite National Park near the Hetch Hetchy Dam in Tuolumne County, California, on Friday.

Reuters/San Francisco


Firefighters yesterday battled to gain control of a fast-moving wildfire raging on the edge of Yosemite National Park that is threatening power and water supplies to San Francisco about 322km to the west.
The so-called Rim Fire, which had grown to just over 125,000 acres (50,585 hectares) as of early yesterday, remained largely unchecked with extreme terrain hampering efforts at containment.
“We are making progress but unfortunately the steep terrain definitely has posed a major challenge,” said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
“Today we’re continuing to see warm weather that could allow this fire to continue to grow very rapidly as it has over the last several days,” Berlant said.
California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday declared a state of emergency, warning that the fire had damaged the electrical infrastructure serving the city, and forced the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to shut down power lines.
There have been no reports of blackouts in San Francisco.
Ashley Taylor, a spokeswoman for the US Forest Service, said high humidity and firefighting efforts through the night had helped some.
“Firefighters are still working with the same difficult situation, and they’re really taking every opportunity they can to take hold of this fire,” Taylor said. “They’re working very hard to take this down.”
The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir provides water to 2.6mn customers in the San Francisco area, and Brown in his declaration said the city’s water supply could be affected if the blaze affects the reservoir.
On Friday, the fire was about 6.4km west of the reservoir and some 32km from Yosemite Valley, the park’s main tourist center. It was consuming brush, oaks and pine and was about 5% contained as of late Friday.
The fire had blackened about 11,000 acres (4,450 hectares) in the northwestern corner of Yosemite as of Friday afternoon.
Berlant said about 2,700 firefighters were expected to be on the front lines on Saturday to fight the fire, which started on Aug. 17 in the Stanislaus National Forest.
Yosemite, one of the nation’s major tourist destinations, attracted nearly 4mn visitors last year. The park has been posting updates and alerts on its website.
The blaze in the western Sierra Nevada Mountains is now the fastest-moving of 50 large wildfires raging across the drought-parched US West that have strained resources and prompted fire managers to open talks with Pentagon commanders and Canadian officials about possible reinforcements.
Taylor said there had been one reported injury, a heat-related injury to a firefighter, due to the fire. About 4,500 residences, three commercial buildings and 1,000 outbuildings are currently threatened by the fire, she said.
Through Friday, the fire had destroyed four homes and 12 outbuildings.
Taylor said there is no plan to close Yosemite National Park due to the fire. However, park officials have closed areas in its northwestern edge throughout the week, including the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir area, Lake Eleanor, Lake Cherry and Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias.
Highway 120, one of four access routes to Yosemite, which is known for its waterfalls, giant sequoia groves and other scenic wonders, was temporarily closed. The highway leads to the west side of the 750,000-acre (300,000-hectare) national park.