The nation's largest active forest fire continued to burn at the edge of Yosemite National Park Monday, reaching 234 square miles and prompting multiple mandatory and advisory evacuations in the area to northwest of the park, officials said.
At least 4,500 structures are threatened, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fire was about 20 miles from the iconic Yosemite Valley, home to Half Dome, the Ahwahnee Hotel and Curry Village. "There is no imminent threat of any kind," said Tom Medema, a park spokesman.
Overall the fire was 15% contained as of Monday at 7 a.m. local time, a recorded message at the incident command center said. It has so far burned 23 structures. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for residents in some areas in the path of the fire while other towns, including Tuolumne and Mi-Wuk Village, were under advisory evacuations.
Highway 120, one of the main roads into Yosemite National Park, was closed to all inbound and outbound traffic.
Larry Brown lives in Sonora, Calif., over 10 miles from the fire. "It's about a half mile visibility here because of the smoke. Everything smells like smoke, when I open the car door it smells inside," he said.
Brown is a ham radio operator with the Tuolumne County Amateur Radio Electronics Society which is manning phone lines at the Sonora community information line for those affected by the fire.
He and others have been impressed "as always," he says, with the work of the firefighters. But he says people who live in the Sierra realize that fire is a natural part of the landscape there.
"This is part of the ecosystem—we do burn in here every so often. There are plants and things within the canyons that are reliant on the fire to pen their seeds, that have adapted to that environment."
The fire, dubbed the "Rim fire" by federal fire officials, is one of several burning in the west.
At least 4,500 structures are threatened, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fire was about 20 miles from the iconic Yosemite Valley, home to Half Dome, the Ahwahnee Hotel and Curry Village. "There is no imminent threat of any kind," said Tom Medema, a park spokesman.
Overall the fire was 15% contained as of Monday at 7 a.m. local time, a recorded message at the incident command center said. It has so far burned 23 structures. Mandatory evacuations were ordered for residents in some areas in the path of the fire while other towns, including Tuolumne and Mi-Wuk Village, were under advisory evacuations.
Highway 120, one of the main roads into Yosemite National Park, was closed to all inbound and outbound traffic.
Larry Brown lives in Sonora, Calif., over 10 miles from the fire. "It's about a half mile visibility here because of the smoke. Everything smells like smoke, when I open the car door it smells inside," he said.
Brown is a ham radio operator with the Tuolumne County Amateur Radio Electronics Society which is manning phone lines at the Sonora community information line for those affected by the fire.
He and others have been impressed "as always," he says, with the work of the firefighters. But he says people who live in the Sierra realize that fire is a natural part of the landscape there.
"This is part of the ecosystem—we do burn in here every so often. There are plants and things within the canyons that are reliant on the fire to pen their seeds, that have adapted to that environment."
The fire, dubbed the "Rim fire" by federal fire officials, is one of several burning in the west.