CALIFORNIA (Washington Insider Magazine) – The Oak Fire in California, which began on Friday as a 60-acre inferno in a remote mountain location and immediately went viral on social media, had grown to about 12,000 acres by Saturday night, burned 10 buildings, destroyed 5 more, and was posing a threat to roughly 2,700 additional structures nearby.
Hector Vasquez, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the video’s stunning depictions of blazing flames and swirling smoke clouds were a sign of a wildfire going through a growth spurt.
According to fire officials, as of late Saturday, the fire remained completely uncontained.
On Friday, a pyrocumulus column of smoke from the blaze was visible from Reno, Nevada, which is located on the other end of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The International Space Station could see the smoke plume from the fire, according to satellite imagery published by NASA on Saturday.
The Oak Fire, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center for wildfire response, was caused by extreme fire behavior, including running, long-range sighting, and single tree burning.
Vasquez claimed that despite a third straight year of drought, a warmer-than-average spring, and scorching heat that began before the equinox, the meteorological start of the season, the fire’s quick development indicates potential to become one of the state’s megafires with 6-figure acreage.
The good fortune that would prevent at least one of the causes of the Oak Fire— sufficient winds, dry fuel, and hot temperatures—is what firefighters are hoping for. So far, the situation seems excellent, with fragile dead trees and branches downed by a bark beetle infestation and an unrelieving weather forecast.
For the next 7 days, the National Weather Service predicts calm winds, moderate humidity, and hot temperatures in the mid-90s.
Firefighters have some degree of power over people’s reactions.
More than 400 people have been assigned to the Oak Fire by Calfire and its regional, local, and federal partners. They will have to deal with its expansion through spot fires flourishing on the dry, beetle-damaged fuel as well as its movement northward into the Sierra National Forest.
Around 30 miles east of the flame’s torso sits the Yosemite National Forest. As the separate Washburn Wildfire threatened the park’s prized great sequoia trees, it already narrowly avoided losing one of them since it was almost completely controlled.
In order to increase firefighting resources, the office of Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday obtained a Federal Emergency Management Agency funding that would let the state charge the federal government for a large portion of the Oak Fire response.
In response to the Oak Fire, Newsom proclaimed on Saturday that Mariposa County is under a state of emergency. According to NBC NEWS, the declaration opens the door for greater state resources to help battle the fire and eventually recover.
Several Mariposa County neighborhoods are subject to mandatory evacuation orders, and a number of other areas have been added to the list of places where residents are urged to prepare to flee. More than 3,000 Mariposa County residents, according to Newsom’s administration, were required to evacuate as of late Saturday.
The origin of the fire is being investigated.
