ALAMEDA COUNTY (KCBS RADIO) – California's largest active wildfire, burning near Yosemite National Park, has surpassed 18,000 acres as Bay Area fire crews join the fight to contain the blaze.
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In its Tuesday morning update, CAL FIRE said the blaze grew overnight to 18,087 acres but was 26% contained, up from 16% on Monday night.
CALFIRE spokesperson Dominic Polito told KCBS Radio the flames did cross some containment lines overnight, in what's known as "slop over," but only burned through approximately 20 acres.
"They are putting many resources there today," Polito said. "Last night they had some good direct line and they're going to continue to keep doing that today. They're trying to keep it from going up into the really steep terrain on the northeast end of the fire."
An air advisory for the Bay Area has been extended through Wednesday because of smoke from the Oak Fire, although officials said the air quality should remain in the good to moderate range.
Nearly 3,000 firefighters were on the front lines of the blaze as of Tuesday, among those crews are multiple units from Alameda and Sonoma counties, including teams from the Oakland, Hayward and Fremont fire departments.
Fremont Battalion Chief Kyle Adams told KCBS Radio on Monday that his department’s four-person crew was called up on Saturday, just a day after the fire broke out.
"They went right to work doing structure protection, and then they got a day off about 36 hours later," he recalled. "And they're back on shift today, working on a division where it's slopped over the containment lines just to make sure that it stays contained."
So far, Adams and his colleagues from across the state are making good headway in steep, rugged terrain amid triple-digit temperatures. These mutual aid assignments are critical to how California battles wildfires, which are much too big for any one agency.
"In Oakland, mutual aid played a major role in the response of the 1991 hills fire," Hunt said. "And we may need that little support again, we just never know. In the meantime, we're proud to provide support and service to our partners throughout the state."
Hunt said that crews backfill the deployed firefighters, so local staffing isn’t impacted.
The East Bay contingent formed a strike team of nearly two dozen firefighters, working on structure protection amid the fire’s explosive behavior. CAL FIRE said 25 single residence structures and 16 outbuildings had been destroyed as of Tuesday morning, with nearly 1,440 structures still threatened. Thousands of Mariposa County residents remain evacuated.
Officials also said they project the fire will be fully contained by Saturday.
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