USA TODAY International Edition
Community tends to its own as Rim blazes
Evacuation orders are expanded
SONORA, CALIF. Even before evacuation warnings reached her rural mountain community ahead of the massive wildfire growing just to the east, Stacy Geer packed up her two kids and headed to the safety of a Red Cross shelter.
“Last night was hard. The kids couldn’t really sleep with the lights and the noise, but it’s much better than being home and stressing out about the smoke,” says Geer, who left her home in the Twainharte community with the children, ages 3 and 1, for the shelter set up at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds. Her husband remained behind to watch their home.
The Rim Fire was still expanding Tuesday. State and federal fire officials estimate its size at more than 280 square miles, covering a portion of Yosemite National Park and an area to the west of the park.
An army of firefighters, more than 3,750, battled the blaze, which has destroyed 31 homes and 80 outbuildings, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Firefighters were aided by large liquid- dropping aircraft, including C- 130 and DC- 10 airplanes and at least 15 helicopters.
Fire officials expanded evacuation orders because 4,500 homes, 1,000 outbuildings and half a dozen commercial buildings were threatened.
As Labor Day weekend nears, the Park Service was eager to get the word out that it’s business as usual at Yosemite National Park, which sprawls over 750,000 acres and soars from bear- stalked meadows to 13,000- foot granite peaks with celebrated names such as El Capitan and Half Dome. The park bears little trace of the inferno that burns about 20 miles to the north.
In Sonora, pop. 4,903, the smoke was suffocating Tuesday. Visibility is negligible in an area renowned for its scenic grandeur.
Residents are focusing less on their woes and more on their neighbors. “I don’t give the fire a second thought,” Tom Penhallegon, a Lions leader whose crew has assumed cooking duties at the evacuation center, said of the flames. “My mind is on taking care of my people.”
Red Cross spokesman Mike Duncan says he has had to turn back volunteers, given that the shelter, which can sleep upward of 500 people, is only 10% full. Animals also are welcome; a tabby cat and a dog were dropped off by their owners for safe keeping.
Duncan from nearby Oakdale has worked as a volunteer in 14 disasters, including Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. “It’s surreal that after all those deployments all over the country, now it’s in my area,’’ he says. “But that just makes me work harder.’’