A wildfire outside Yosemite National Park has more than tripled in size, prompting officers to warn residents in a gated community to flee their homes.
It is one of several blazes in or near national parks in the US and has forced scores of tourists to leave the area during peak season.
California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency due to the huge fire, which is among 50 major uncontained blazes burning across the western US.
As flames approached an area of Pine Mountain Lake with 268 homes yesterday, deputies went door-to-door to deliver the news and to urge people to leave, Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Department Sgt Scott Johnson said.
The evacuations are not mandatory, although he stressed that the fire, smoke and the potential for power cuts pose imminent threats.
Fire officials said the blaze, which started on Saturday, had grown to more than 217 sq km (84 sq miles) and was only 2 per cent contained yesterday, down from 5 per cent a day earlier. Two homes and seven outbuildings have been destroyed.
While the park remains open, the blaze has caused the closure of a stretch of State Route 120, one of three entrances into Yosemite on the west side, devastating areas that live from park-fuelled tourism.
Officials also have advised voluntary evacuations of more than a thousand other homes, several organised camps and at least two camping sites.
More homes, businesses and hotels are threatened in nearby Groveland, a community of 600 about 8km from the fire and 40km from the entrance of Yosemite.
“Usually during summer, it’s swamped with tourists, you can’t find parking downtown,” said Christina Wilkinson, who runs Groveland’s social media pages and lives in Pine Mountain Lake. “Now, the streets are empty. All we see is firefighters, emergency personnel and fire trucks.”
Many local businesses have closed and people who had holiday rental homes are cancelling plans, local business owners said.
“This fire, it’s killing our financial picture,” said Corinna Loh, whose family owns the still-open Iron Door Saloon and Grill in Groveland. “This is our high season and it has gone to nothing, we’re really hurting.”
The governor’s emergency declaration finding “conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property” frees up funds and firefighting resources and helps Tuolumne County in seeking federal disaster relief.
The Yosemite County Tourism Bureau based in Mariposa has been helping tourists displaced by the fire to find new accommodation in other park-area towns, said director Terry Selk.
In Yellowstone National Park, five wildfires have been burned about 50sq km of mostly remote areas on the 25th anniversary of the infamous 1988 fires that destroyed more than 3,000 sq km inside Yellowstone, or more than a third of the park.
The vast areas that burned that year remain obvious to anybody who drives through. The trees in the burn areas are a lot shorter.
AP