A wildfire raging in the northwest part of Yosemite National Park is expected to advance farther into the park on Tuesday and continues to threaten a reservoir that supplies most of San Francisco's water.
The Rim Fire has burned more than 160,000 acres, most of that in the Stanislaus National Forest west of Yosemite. The fire is dangerously close to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir that supplies water to San Francisco and its surrounding areas.
"In an effort to control the blaze, 12 helicopters and half-dozen fixed wing tankers are dropping water and retardant from the air," says Dr. Thomas Girnius, senior scientist at AIR Worldwide. "Additionally, 2,800 firefighters are fighting the blaze on the ground."
Click "next" to see scenes from the massive fire and the efforts to contain it.
Photos provided by AP Photos/Jae C. Hong.
Firefighter A.J. Tevis watches the flames of the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Sunday, Aug. 25, 2013. With winds gusting to 50 mph on Sierra mountain ridges and flames jumping from treetop to treetop, hundreds of firefighters have been deployed to protect this and other communities in the path of the Rim Fire raging north of Yosemite National Park.
A burned SUV sits in front of a campground destroyed by the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, Calif., on Monday. The blaze has destroyed about a dozen homes, and some 4,500 dwellings remain threatened.
Operations section chief Glen Stratton points to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir on the map while briefing the media at the command post near Yosemite National Park, Calif. The eastern flank of the fire on Monday burned to within a half mile of the reservoir, which supplies 85 percent of the water consumed by 2.6 million people in San Francisco and several communities in three adjacent counties about 200 miles to the west.
The Rim Fire has already damaged two of the three hydropower generating stations linked to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir that supply electricity for all of San Francisco's public facilities, such as hospitals and firehouses. According to Reuters, the city has drawn on reserve power stored for emergencies and is purchasing additional electricity on the open market to make up for the difference.
Trees burn in a burnout fire as firefighters continue to battle the Rim Fire. Fire crews are clearing brush and setting sprinklers to protect two groves of giant sequoias as a massive week-old wildfire rages along the remote northwest edge of Yosemite National Park.
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