Re: Yosemite Fire Update—July 30, 2014, 8am

General El Portal Fire Information

The El Portal Fire remains very active in extremely steep and remote terrain requiring heavy dependence on TYPE 1 hand crews and aviation assets. As with any incident in Yosemite National Park, firefighter and public safety is our number one priority. We appreciate everyone’s assistance with this priority.

• The fire is currently 3,545 acres and 34% contained.
• Resources assigned include 864 Fire Personnel, 7 helicopters and fixed wing as needed
• As of July 29 at 9AM, the evacuation order for Old El Portal was lifted.
• As of July 27, a Type 1 Interagency Management Team, from Southern California, was given command of this fire. The fire is on both NPS lands and Stanislaus National Forest. Joint Unified Command has been established.
• On July 26, at approximately 3:15, the El Portal fire began in the community of El Portal.

Foresta – Fire remains active near community

• Evacuations remain in effect for Foresta.
• Structures in Foresta remain threatened. Two structures have been lost in Foresta – both of which were lost on the first day of the fire, located at the same address.
• Structure protection engines remain in the area.

Campgrounds & Roads Affected – Hwy 120 Remains Open (from Big Oak Flat to Tioga Pass)

• Crane Flat and Yosemite Creek Campgrounds are closed.
• Bridalveil Campground is being used for fire operations and is therefore closed.
• The Big Oak Flat Road is closed between Crane Flat south to the junction of Highway 140. This is a hard closure until further notice for the public, employees and residents.

For More Information

• Fire updates for the El Portal Fire are provided by the Type 1 Incident Management Team, working closely with park management. Fire information call center: 209-372-0327 or 209-372-0328.

Additional Fire Activity in Yosemite – all lightning started fires in designated Wilderness

• Dark Hole (647 acres, 5% contained) – managing for minimum impact to wilderness character and is being managed by the Type 1 Interagency Team.
• Mount Starr King (.5 acres) – smoldering and creeping
• Lembert (.25 acres) – smoldering and creeping
• Cathedral (.5 acres) – smoldering and creeping
• Elbow (2 acres) – smoldering and creeping

Another update; Big Oak Flat Road is open from the 120/140 junction to Crane Flat. BOF Road is closed from Crane Flat to Big Oak Flat Entrance. Tioga Road is accessible.

This was as of 5:30pm. Things may have changed since then.

With all these road closures, what is the recommended route from San Jose to Tuolumne Meadows. We are camping over there this weekend. For the folks who has been there in the last couple of days, how has the fire effected that area. Any smoke?

Thanks,

Hi would appreciate any recommendations too as in Tuolomne this weekend too coming from East Bay. interested in best route and advice if should even do trip with all the smoke. Looks bad from valley webcams but cant tell what high country is like. thanks for anyone there recently!

Currently all major roads are open, so you should be able to get to Tuolumne Meadows via your regular preferred route for the time being.

For the latest up-to-date information on road conditions and road closures, call the Yosemite Park Information Line at (209) 372-0200, press 1, then press 1 again.

The recording on this line is updated whenever road conditions in Yosemite National Park change. It's a handy number to save on your mobile phone.

.

Looks like the roads are opening/closing rapidly. A look at the nps.gov fire incident page has announcements from yesterday saying that the BOF is open from Crane Flat to the 140/120 intersection (2pm), that the BOF is closed from the entrance station to Crane Flat (3:30pm) and that the BOF is open (8pm).

Currently, as of 8:45 AM this morning, that fire incident webpage states that all major roads in Yosemite are open (including all of Big Oak Flat Road).

Bridalveil Creek and Yosemite Creek campgrounds remain temporarily closed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2014 12:38PM by plawrence.

This was posted a few minutes ago on Inciweb:

"The evacuation order will be lifted for the community of Foresta on Friday, August 1 at 3:00 p.m."