A building burned Friday as the oak fire crossed Dara Road in Mariposa County.
A bushfire in Mariposa County showed extreme behavior as it exploded 6,555 acres overnight, threatened thousands of homes and quickly became one of the biggest wildfires in California this year.
The oak fire that began around 2 p.m. According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Services, the containment rate was 0 percent on Friday as of noon On Saturday. The fire destroyed 10 buildings and threatened another 2,000.
On Friday night, the area under the mandatory evacuation order stretched for miles from unincorporated communities south of Ze Cidel to Bootjack and other areas along Route 49.
"Firefighting activities are extreme, with frequent running and group torches," Carl Fire said. "Due to the hot, dry weather and drought, the vegetation is very receptive to new on-site fires. Heavy fuels, strong winds and low humidity can also affect the ignition behavior. With the help of several helicopters that fell into the water, nearly 400 firefighters were putting out the fire.
Fire officials said it could take a week to fully control the fire. Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire, which took place on Highway 140 and Castlenth road near the Midlands.
Taylor Wasser, a spokesman for the American Red Cross in the Central Valley, said the evacuation center at Mariposa Elementary School had hosted more than 60 people as of noon Saturday.
Puisall said the school cafeteria has beds with privacy screens and provides three meals a day. The Central California Animal Disaster Team also opened pet shelters at schools.
"Last night we evacuated a lot of people and their animals," Poisal said. "Animals are also family.
The evacuation center, originally located in the eastern part of town by the New Life Christian Fellowship, had been used in previous fires. But in the first few hours of the fire, it was transferred to elementary school for safety reasons.
"We moved because the wildfires spread too quickly," Poisal said.
Some residents who evacuated the oak fire posted a photo of cumulus extending into the atmosphere on Twitter. According to Andy Bolenbach, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Hanford, the cloud tops reached an altitude of 25,000 to 30,000 feet earlier Friday night.
Smoke clouds formed by smoke rising vertically over wind-powered flames swelled friday over the Oak Fire in Mariposa County
Cumulus cumulus is formed by smoke rising vertically on wind-driven fires. The hot air from the fire rises rapidly, creating more uniform conditions that make pressing more difficult. Under certain conditions, rapidly rising air can produce a fire tornado. Black volcanic cumulus clouds carry soot, ash and other pollutants into the atmosphere for up to 10 miles.
In the most extreme cases, when smoke forms so-called flame cumulus clouds, wildfires can produce weather of their own. Like thunderstorms, such clouds produce lightning and potentially strong winds, which can trigger and spread more fires. Bollenbacher said that although the situation in oak forest fire areas is not as severe, they help promote the rapid growth of fires. The relative humidity is very low — about 7 to 8 percent — and the temperature hovers around 95 degrees. He said the wind was blowing in from the northwest at 5 to 10 miles per hour, with gusts of wind speeds of about 20 miles per hour.
Bollenbacher said Saturday's lighter winds may provide limited relief and inhibit the extreme spotting behavior observed On Friday, but the temperature and humidity will remain the same.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles and a California climate fellow at the Nature Conservancy, tweeted that the fire destroyed an extremely dry fuel area near "a partition in the foothills of a lush vegetation mountain."
"With the advent of #OakFire, California's relatively mild and non-destructive wildfires appear to be over this season," Swain said in a later tweet. "It's still a fierce and fast-moving fire that is now burning to the wasteland-city interface, and there has been a certain degree of structural loss."
Less than 10 miles east of the fire, the Washbourne Fire is still burning in Yosemite National Park. Nearly 5,000 acres of land have been burned since the fire was ignited on July 7, and as of Friday, the fire was 79 percent under control.
Christie Christie Mitchell, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said members of parliament had received reports that people were trapped in an evacuation zone and either did not have a vehicle or could not leave. Troops are helping them evacuate, but it's unclear how many people on the path of the fire need help.
The Sheriff's Office said an evacuation center had been set up at 5044 Jones Street at Mariposa Elementary School. Those with animals should go to Mariposa Amusement Park and Expo Center.
A building burned Friday as the oak fire crossed Dara Road in Mariposa County.