Oak fire near Yosemite explodes to 6,555 acres, 10 structures destroyed, thousands threatened [Breaking]
A brush fire in Mariposa County showed extreme behavior as it exploded in size to 6,555 acres overnight, threatening thousands of homes and quickly becoming one of California’s largest wildfires of the year.
“Fire activity is extreme with frequent runs and group torching,” according to Cal Fire. “Vegetation is very receptive to new spot fires due to the hot, dry weather and drought. Heavy fuels, strong winds and low humidity are also influencing fire behavior.”Assisted by several water-dropping helicopters, nearly 400 firefighters are battling the blaze.
Pyrocumulus clouds are formed by plumes of smoke rising vertically over wind-driven fires. Heated air from the fire rises rapidly, creating even gustier conditions and making suppression more difficult. Under certain conditions, that fast-rising air can create a fire tornado. The black pyrocumulus clouds carry soot, ash and other pollutants as high as 10 miles into the atmosphere.
Though conditions in the Oak fire area were not yet that severe, they helped drive the fire’s rapid growth, Bollenbacher said. Relative humidity was very low — about 7% to 8% — and temperatures hovered around 95 degrees. Winds came out of the northwest at 5 to 10 mph and gusted to about 20 mph, he said.
. “This continues to be an intense & fast-moving fire, and is now burning into the wildland-urban interface, with some level of structure loss already.”There were other social media reports of structure loss, but officials with Cal Fire were not able to confirm whether any structures were damaged or destroyed Friday night.
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