Ferguson Fire on rampage

Los Angeles – A fierce California wildfire crept toward the boundary of Yosemite National Park on Tuesday as crews fought through steep, often inaccessible terrain and thick smoke to protect a string of small mountain communities in the path of the flames.

The so-called Ferguson Fire, which started on Friday night and killed a firefighter the following day, had charred nearly 49 square kilometers by Tuesday afternoon and was burning just a few kilometers outside the park.

“The fire continues to grow,” fire spokesperson Adrienne Freeman said. “There’s a lot of vegetation and it’s very, very dry, there’s a significant amount of beetle kill [in the trees].”

“The story is, this is steep terrain,” she said. “You would have a difficult time walking on some of these slopes or getting people into these canyons. There are a lot of places where we simply cannot put people because it’s not safe.”

Making the job more difficult was an inversion layer of thick black smoke pouring off the flames and visible for kilometers that prevented water-dropping helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft from flying low into narrow canyons, said Freeman.

State Route 140, a western entry point into Yosemite, remained closed by the flames. Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the conflagration.