Forest services officials and firefighters had voiced out concerns about the widlfire growing in the northern area of Yosemite National Park. Strong winds blowing at up to 50 miles per hour and the dry terrain made the containment a challenge to firefighters and officials from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and US Forest Service to contain the fire. Since August 17, the fire that has spread to 225 square miles of forest, required a mass force of 3,414 firefighters to contain the area. It was estimated that only 7% of the fire had been contained. The cause of the fire is yet to be determined, but investigators had said that it may have been because of the lightning storms.
Calling it as a "very difficult firefight", the fire is now dangerously close to the Hetch Hetcy Reservoir. The reservoir is both the source of San Francisco's pure drinking water for its over 2.6 million people and hydroelectric power for big municipal real estates, including the state's airport. San Francisco had purchased an extra USD600,000 in backup power for the city just in case.
Yosemite is home to two sequioa groves considered as the oldest living creatures in the planet. The tree groves are located in Tuolumne and Merced and were provided with countermeasures to protect the groves. The fire already destroyed 23 structures, including Berkeley Tuolumne Family Campsite. About 4,500 more are being threatened by the fire. However, the tourist areas such as the Half Dome and El Capitan remained open, as they are 20 miles away from the fire.
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