The Associated Press
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif.- Fire crews rappelled from helicopters and scaled mountain trails Wednesday to combat a dozen lightening fires burning near inhabited areas inside Yosemite National Park.
The fires, which were sparked by Tuesday afternoon’s intense thunderstorms, burnt between five and six acres near Crane Flat and Foresta, a community of about 200 people.
“Anytime we have these lightening fires with dry conditions, there is a potential for them to go into a developed area,” said Scott Gediman, a park ranger. “We’ve been fighting them aggressively, and they’re just about out.”
One of the lightening fires came close to the Yosemite Institute, an outdoor education program in Crane Flat, park officials said. The blazes burnt down dozens of cedars and pine trees inside the park, and ignited trees in the Sierra National Forest, just outside the park below Yosemite Flat.
Gediman said 60 Yosemite firefighters began attacking the blazes mid-afternoon Tuesday. Crews descended on ropes into the fires armed with axes to chop down smoldering trees, as the rain that accompanied the storm dampened the underbrush.
“Most of them were just one or two burning trees, but this was a lot of concentrated strikes at one time,” he added.