About 6,000 people have been ordered to evacuate because of a wildfire that is burning thousands of acres near Yosemite National Park and challenging the firefighters working to suppress the flames, authorities said Saturday afternoon.
It’s peak fire season in California, where climate change has heightened the intensity and frequency of wildfires.
Mariposa County has seen several large wildfires in recent years, including the 2013 Rim Fire, which is among California’s 20This month, a wildfire in Yosemite threatened hundreds of giant sequoias in Mariposa Grove, the park’s largest grove. On Friday, firefighters assumed command of the Washburn Fire, which began July 7, according to the incident management team.
The Oak Fire probably will grow past 10,000 acres by mid-Sunday, climate scientist Daniel Swain said on Twitter.
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