The Associated Press
BISHOP, Calif. — A lightning-sparked wildfire in the Inyo National Forest near Bishop surged to 2,000 acres on Sunday and forced the evacuation of a small community and several campgrounds, authorities said.
The fire — by far the largest of 23 likely started by lightning in the forest over the weekend — thrived in hundred-degree heat Sunday after it started on Saturday afternoon, said U.S. Forest Service spokesman John Louth.
“It burned quite aggressively overnight and today,” Louth said.
The town of Aspendale — a collection of vacation homes with about 150 people when all are occupied — was evacuated, along with nine campgrounds in the Inyo National Forest.
Louth said the blaze was on a ridge above the homes and no structures were in immediate danger of burning.
About 200 firefighters with help from five air tankers, two helicopters and a spotter plane fought the fire that burned in difficult-to-reach terrain amid heavy vegetation, Louth said.
The fire was about 10 miles west of Bishop, a central California city of about 3,500, but Louth says the blaze was burning northward toward less populated areas.