The State - News from July 5, 1988

Firefighters aided by lower temperatures and higher humidity reported that a fire that raged across 2,200 acres near Yosemite National Park over the holiday weekend was 90% contained. Officials said they hoped to have a line around the fire by early today. Illegal fireworks were blamed for causing the fire. “We have evidence confirming that it was a bottle rocket,” said Mary Hale, a spokeswoman for Stanislaus National Forest. The fire began in the Merced River Canyon, five miles west of El Portal, a town in the Stanislaus forest 10 miles west of the park. The area, inaccessible to trucks or bulldozers, required more than 670 firefighters from federal, state and local agencies to cut trails by hand and depend on planes to drop fire retardant, officials said.