The historic Hearst Castle, a major tourist attraction on California’s central coast, will be closed to the public through the week as a safety precaution due to a wildfire in the area that has destroyed more than 30 homes, state officials said on Monday.
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SAN SIMEON, San Luis Obispo County – More than 10,000 firefighters battled wildfires Monday from the Central Coast to Sierra Nevada forests or mopped up remnants of destructive blazes beaten into submission up and down the state.
At Lower Lake, 80 miles north of San Francisco, recovery efforts remained under way in the aftermath of hard-hit Lake County’s latest wildfire, which destroyed 189 homes since erupting August 13. In the aftermath of the fire started by a downed power line that spread about 6 miles northeast of Spangle, Wash., firefighters sent a back up burn to get rid of fuels on the ground, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2016.
As of Sunday morning, the Chimney Fire was listed at 24,096 acres with 35 percent containment.
Hearst Castle was closed over the weekend, though officials say the fire is growing in the opposite direction of the popular tourist attraction.
The Department of Natural Resources says the fire west of Spokane also scorched more than 9 square miles by Monday.
Administration spokesman Brian Ferguson called firefighters “everyday heroes”, but added in a statement that “the state must balance the needs of many different bargaining units and the overall state budget”.
Wildfires in the Spokane area have burned more than a dozen homes and forced evacuations.
The manager also said the growth was due in part to continued problems accurately mapping the fire because of smoke in the area.
A growing wildfire in central California had charred almost 50 square miles by Monday, while a destructive blaze in Southern California was mostly under control.
Amber Anderson, Chimney Fire Public Information Officer, told KSBY: ‘What we’re doing today is taking a look at some of the ridge lines in the area where we can make a really strong hold on the fire on this edge, to stop that threat of the fire moving’. So far residents living in the Bryson Hesperia community in South County remain under evacuation orders.
Meanwhile, people in the community of Wellpinit on the Spokane Indian Reservation have been told to evacuate.
To date, 30 homes and 10 “outbuilding-type structures” have been destroyed.
Warm, windy weather has led the biggest wildfire in Yellowstone National Park in northwest Wyoming to grow significantly.
At the height of the fire, some 82,000 people were under evacuation orders.
The Chimney Fire has been burning since August 13, growing to around 19,900 acres on Sunday – up from around 15,400 acres earlier in the day – and the blaze was 35 percent contained, Cal Fire said. Wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour were expected to blow across the dry, hot terrain, stoking extreme fire behavior. It’s one of four fires burning in Yellowstone, and warm, windy weather was expected again Monday.
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The blaze was just 35 percent contained after destroying 34 homes and 14 other buildings.
