The fire, which was 0 percent contained as of Saturday evening, started Friday in the Sierra Nevada foothills near the small community of Midpines, about a 9-mile drive northeast of the county seat , the city of Mariposa, state fire officials said. .The flames ripped through trees and sent thick smoke into the sky Friday, and at least one rural area burned near homes and parked vehicles, video from CNN affiliates KFSN and KGO showed. “(Authorities) came by … and told us everybody has to go,” Wes Detamore, a resident of the Mariposa Pines area, told KFSN on Friday. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Mariposa County after the fire forced more than 3,000 people to evacuate their homes, according to a news release from his office. Activating the state of emergency makes additional resources available to assist in the fire response.
Power to the area went out around 4 p.m. local time on Friday, “and the fire has been coming toward us faster and faster,” Detamore said.
The fire has destroyed at least 10 structures and damaged five others, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said Saturday. The fire threatens another 2,000 structures, Cal Fire said. As of Saturday morning, 6,555 acres had burned, according to Cal Fire. Fire activity was extreme and emergency personnel were working to evacuate people and protect buildings, the department said.
Eleven fire departments with more than 400 personnel, as well as 45 fire engines and four helicopters, have been assigned to fight the flames, Cal Fire said.
Evacuations have been ordered for certain areas of Mariposa County south and east of the fire, as shown on an online map. The evacuation zones did not include the town of Mariposa.
A Red Cross evacuation center has been set up at an elementary school in Mariposa, Cal Fire said.
The fire comes as much of the United States has experienced an extreme heat wave this week, with parts of California seeing temperatures in the triple digits. The wildfires that have scorched the western United States in recent years have become more frequent due to worsening drought conditions driven by climate change. In California alone, more than 2.5 million acres burned in nearly 9,000 fires last year, according to Cal Fire.
The couple left with “only the clothes on their backs”
Nick Smith told CNN that his parents’ house caught fire as a result of the fire. Her parents, Jane and Wes Smith, lived in their Mariposa home for 37 years, she said.
“It’s very sad to see that the house I grew up in is gone,” he said. “Hit hard.”
Smith told CNN that his father is a Mariposa sheriff and was working on the fire when his mother, Jane, had to evacuate. He had time to load his horses and leave the area, according to Smith.
“They only had the clothes on their backs and the shoes on their feet,” he added.
In the meantime, the couple is staying with friends and family. Smith set up a verified GoFundMe to support her parents and help them cope with their loss.
“They lived in their home for over 37 years and now they have lost everything,” Smith wrote on GoFundMe. “37 years of memories, generations of family treasures and countless more sentimental things. Even though they are material, it is devastating to literally lose it all in the blink of an eye without warning.”
The fire is about a dozen miles southwest of the southern edge of Yosemite National Park, although the park is closer as measured in a straight line.
The Oak Fire is the largest of the currently active wildfires in California, of which there were at least six as of Saturday morning, according to Cal Fire. The second largest, the Washburn Fire, has been burning south of and near Yosemite National Park for more than two weeks. . It had burned more than 4,850 acres and was 79 percent contained by Saturday morning, according to InciWeb, a U.S. clearinghouse for wildfire information.
CNN’s Tina Burnside contributed to this report.