Massive f ire keeps growing
Crews attempt to stop wildfire from jumping highway as drought helps it spread.
Evacuations are ordered as the Rough fire burning in the Sierra passes 110,000 acres.
The National Park Service issued evacuation orders Thursday for hundreds of employees and visitors in the Sierra and Sequoia national forests as the Rough fire, the largest active blaze in the state, exploded to more than 110,000 acres.
Employees and residents of Wilsonia and the Grant Grove area of Kings Canyon National Park were asked to leave as firefighters increased their attack on the blaze, officials said. Fire crews began burnout operations along California 180 on Wednesday night to minimize the risk of the blaze jumping the road. The fire is 29% contained.
“It’s very slow, it’s very methodical,” Team 3 Incident Cmdr. Mark von Tillow told residents at a meeting. “We are not lighting this stuff up and ripping the trees off and you are not going to be left with a bunch of black sticks.”
U.S. Forest Service officials say the drought is contributing to the active fire behavior.
Much of the forest area is steep and populated with dead trees killed off by pine bark beetles.
Years of drought have stressed millions of pine trees on forestland, making them more susceptible to bark beetle attacks. Forest Service officials estimate the Southern Sierra Nevada has 10.45 million dead trees.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks lie in the southern Sierra Nevada and are home to some of the largest and oldest living trees.
More than 2,100 firefighters are battling the lightning-sparked fire, which started July 31 just east of Fresno. The fire spread rapidly due to low humidity and warm temperatures.
Von Tillow said the fire is burning anything in its path.
Additional evacuation orders went out to residents north of California 180, stretching west from Hopewell Road, to the Armenian Church Western Diocese Summer Camp.
California 180 is closed east of Dunlap Road, as well as the following access roads: California 245 in Pinehurst, Millwood Road between Dunlap and California 180, and California 198 at Red Fir into Kings Canyon National Road.