Wildfires Force Visitors Out of Yosemite Valley

Smoke obscured the view of Half Dome and the floor of Yosemite Valley turned eerily still Friday as wildfires raging out of control in the park forced the first-ever summer evacuation of all campsites and lodgings, including the ritzy Ahwahnee Hotel.

About 10,000 people--including a few thousand day visitors trapped overnight Thursday in the valley when fires closed all three exit highways--left in an orderly caravan that began at 6:30 a.m. By 10 a.m. the roads were clear of cars and campers, the meadows free of hikers and the parking lots all but empty.

The fires, which were ignited by lightning on Thursday, were still burning out of control and had charred more than 12,000 acres of forest, most of it safely removed from park areas most familiar to visitors. There was no immediate threat to Yosemite Valley. Sixty-six buildings in and near the small settlement of Foresta were destroyed, at least 27 of them private homes, said park spokesman Don Fox.

All roads into Yosemite remained closed to the public Friday. The park is not expected to reopen before late Sunday, and firefighters still have no estimate of when they will gain control of the two main flanks of flame racing through thick forests on the west side of Yosemite.

“We are nowhere near containment of the fires right now,” U.S. Forest Service spokesman Dave Balough said.

The largest fire, the one in the Foresta area, has burned 7,000 acres from California 140 near El Portal, just outside the park, to the Crane Flat section of the Yosemite high country. Another 5,021 acres have burned west of the Chinquapin junction inside Yosemite. About 850 firefighters are on the scene.

At Foresta, a small “in-holding” town of private homes that was annexed to the park decades ago, the toll included the home of Shirley Sargent, an unofficial park archivist whose chronicles of Yosemite lore are widely available in the park. Her extensive collection of books, artifacts and historical items was lost, Fox said.

Also lost were a historic sawmill and log barn in the McCauley Ranch area near Foresta. Only 18 structures were left unscathed in the Foresta community, Fox said.

“It’s gone. The fire just wiped it out,” firefighter Richard Heiskell said of the settlement. “We were hearing people’s propane tanks exploding. When the fire came in, it was like--I don’t know, a little bit of hell.”

Foresta was safely evacuated before the fire swept through and no one was injured. Several high country campgrounds have also been evacuated, but the big Tuolumne Meadows campground and others not in the immediate area of the fires remain open though unreachable due to the closed highways.

Steep terrain and swirling winds driven by summer thunderstorms above the Sierra Nevada made the firefighting effort treacherous. Crews coming down off the lines talked of fire storms and close calls.

Dave Pearce was commander of the first crew to fight the Foresta area fire and expressed amazement at its rapid spread Thursday afternoon.

“I don’t think anybody in their right mind would have thought this would happen,” Pearce said. “There was no indication it would blow up like it did.”

Late in the afternoon Thursday, a wall of blowing flames overran about 100 firefighters in Foresta Meadow, Pearce said. They formed a circle of fire engines and took refuge in the center of the ring.

“It was like ‘round up the wagons,’ ” Pearce said. Another firefighter, Beth Healy, said, “You could see fire shooting 100 feet over the trees, which can be 150 feet tall.”

Erratic, gusting winds snapped burning embers off the main fire and scattered them over ridges, touching off new hot spots. The fire also moved on the small town of El Portal, just outside the Arch Rock entrance to the park.

Steve Medley, president of the Yosemite Assn., was in El Portal when the fire came over a ridge and spilled down Crane Creek toward the town on California 140. The fire was being pushed by unusual swirling winds.

“I have never seen winds like that here,” Medley said Friday from his home in Oakhurst, where he was monitoring the situation.

Back-fires set by forestry crews turned back the advance before it could claim any buildings in El Portal. But the flames racing through the forest unloosed boulders and debris that fell on the highway, cutting off that last route out of Yosemite for the night.

Pat Kaunart, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service, described the flames Thursday as “extremely intense fire behavior. It literally blew up.”

Weather conditions were better Friday and more firefighters were on hand, but not nearly as many as Yosemite officials had requested. Other fires in California and the West had strained the forces of fire agencies.

Fifteen serious wildfires were being fought in California Friday, most set by the lightning storms that lit up the Sierra Nevada and other areas earlier in the week. Sensors plugged into fire-observation computers counted more than 21,000 lightning strikes.

Two fires in Lassen County had burned 12,500 acres and a fire in Tehama County had charred 39,000 acres. In all, more than 100,000 acres of forest and brush have burned in the state this week.

Even with the improved conditions at Yosemite Friday, the mood was cautious because of the terrain and the dryness of the trees after four years of drought, Kaunart said.

“The forest is virtually ready to explode in flames,” he said. “Firefighters are up against the very worst extremes.”

Yosemite Ranger Dave Lattimore said the conditions have not approached those that fed the disastrous Yellowstone National Park fires two summers ago. But he said efforts at Yosemite are crippled by the park’s limit of three radio frequencies.

“Communication is the worst I’ve seen on any fire ever,” Lattimore said. “We just don’t have the radio frequencies in this park to deal with a major fire.”

The decision to evacuate Yosemite Valley was made about midnight Thursday. Park officials said there was no fire threat to the valley, but the evacuation was ordered in part because there is typically a three-day supply of food on hand. With the roads closed indefinitely, the arrival of new supplies could not be guaranteed. Officials also wanted employees free to fight fires, not looking out for the safety of stranded tourists.

About 6 a.m. Friday, employees began awakening people in lodges, campgrounds, cabins and the Ahwahnee, where rooms go for $200 and up a night, and giving instructions.

Everyone was assigned a departure time. Those in accommodations closest to the west end of the valley left first, east-end visitors and campers last. Rangers released a vehicle every six seconds.

“It went extraordinarily smoothly,” said John Poimoroo, marketing director for Yosemite Park & Curry Co., which runs the lodging and concessions in the park. “Everyone was cooperative, and some even looked at it as an adventure.”

The day visitors who were stranded in the valley overnight slept in the visitors center, the elementary school or their cars. Others pitched tents on a school ball field. When the sun rose, they joined the caravan headed out of the park.

On Friday, many had gathered at the Marriott Tenaya Lodge in Fish Camp, two miles outside the south entrance to the park on California 41.

“We were ordered to leave last night and it was kind of a bummer not to see Yosemite,” said Gina Bonner, 23, of Fresno. But she was not concerned about the fire, which was several miles to the north. “The fire seems a far enough distance from us for us to stay here and lay by the pool, drinking beer.”

Times staff writers George Ramos, Joanna M. Miller and Mike Zacchino contributed to this story.