Evacuees from Yosemite-area fire return home
posted by admin in Home SecurityResidents are returning home Thursday after being forced to flee a wildfire raging outside Yosemite National Park, but some are wondering what they’ll find when they get there.
David Oppenheim, a longtime backcountry guide in Yosemite, has been staying at a motel since he and his wife evacuated their Mariposa home Saturday, taking along their two horses, three llamas, five cats and a dog.
Hundreds of residents were allowed back to their homes Wednesday as firefighters announced they had made critical gains in fighting a wildfire charging across the hillsides outside the park.
The fire has forced dozens of park employees to flee and has left one of California’s most popular destinations shrouded in smoke at the height of the tourist season.
Since then, most hotels, stores and restaurants in the park have been operating on generators.
“We’re not waiting for power to be restored, we’re doing everything in our power to get our guest services back up to speed,” said Kenny Karst, a spokesman for the concessionaire. “We may not have electricity for the lights, but now some people can take hot showers.”
In Montana, meanwhile, strong winds pushed a wildfire to within a half-mile of a ski hill outside the town of Red Lodge, before a late-day shift in weather spared the resort.
“We’re hoping maybe this was our big scare and now we’ll be able to get a handle on it,” said Red Lodge Fire Chief Tom Kuntz. “The weather is expected to be better the next couple of days.”
Since the fire began Saturday, crews have kept the fire largely confined to a canyon that runs out of the Beartooth Mountains along the West Fork of Rock Creek.
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