200 rescued from Calif. wildfire

About 200 people were rescued by helicopter Saturday night into Sunday morning after a fast-growing wildfire trapped them at a reservoir in the Sierra National Forest in California, authorities said.

Dozens of evacuees were packed in military helicopters: Two UH-60 Black Hawks and a CH-47 Chinook helicopter were used to help in the rescues and fly those who had been trapped at the Mammoth Pool Reservoir to Fresno Yosemite International Airport, said Brad Alexander, a spokesman for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

About 20 people were injured, he said, and some were taken to area hospitals. Two people stayed behind, refusing to be evacuated, the Madera County Sheriff ’s Office said on Twitter on Sunday.

“We’re all in awe of the California National Guard pilots who were able to land and evacuate citizens during a fire storm like that,” said the sheriff, Tyson Pogue.

Earlier, the Fresno Fire Department offered a different assessment on Twitter: It said 63 people had been rescued, with two severely injured, 10 moderately injured and 51 others with minor or no injuries.

The conditions of those injured or hospitalized were not immediately available.

California’s emergency services office coordinated mutual aid from the state’s National Guard and Naval Air Station Lemoore after the Madera County sheriff asked for help, Alexander said. Visibility was a significant challenge for pilots throughout the rescue, Alexander said.

The sheriff ’s office wrote on Facebook late Saturday that about 150 people had been sheltering at the Mammoth Pool Boat Launch.

The Mammoth Pool Reservoir, about 80 miles from Fresno, is “very remote and accessible by one two-lane road,” said Sarah Jackson, a spokeswoman for the sheriff ’s office. “When that road is blocked, it becomes very difficult to come and go, let alone in an emergency-type situation,” she said.

Alexander said the road was cut off because of the direction of the fire and was no longer accessible because of the intensity of the heat as well as smoke, damage, threat of debris and fallen trees.