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Just barely two weeks past ferocious wildfires in California another lifts its licking tongues — this time near Yosemite Valley.
An out-of-control wildfire burning Sunday near an entrance to Yosemite National Park has forced hundreds of residents to flee as flames whipped through a rugged canyon untouched by fire for a century.
The fast-spreading blaze has charred 16,000 acres since Friday as wooded slopes ignited amid hot, dry conditions that have plagued California for months. The steep terrain west of the park is overgrown with dense brush that is fueling the flames, fire officials said.
“There’s no fire history in the past 100 hundred years. That’s one of the reasons this fire’s been able to burn so erratically,” said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The wildfire led officials to order the evacuations of 170 homes under immediate threat. About 2,000 homes faced at least some danger from the fast-spreading flames, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.