The fire is continuing to grow and move toward the northeast direction of the lake as of Tuesday night, according to county fire officials.
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In neighboring Yellowstone, a fire burning near the West Entrance Road grew bigger Monday and a new team of fire managers was being brought in to help, although the fire was not being actively suppressed yet.
The warnings were lifted at 6 p.m. for the east side of state Highway 1 from Andrew Molera State Park to Coast Ridge Road at the Ventana Inn & Spa, including the Ventana Inn and Coast Ridge Road to 1.5 miles above the Ventana Inn.
A helicopter flies past Hearst Castle on its way to fight a wildfire in San Simeon, Calif., on August 20, 2016.
State Parks officials said they would monitor conditions on a daily basis to determine when the castle, located nearly due west of the fire, might reopen.
For generations of movie buffs, the castle grounds are significant as the inspiration for the fictional Xanadu estate in the 1941 film classic “Citizen Kane“, starring Orson Welles as a self-made mogul and politician loosely based on Hearst.
Those who bought tickets to tour California’s most-visited state park are being refunded, the official said. The visitor center, which is downhill from the castle, remained open.
“That’s why it’s imperative that people evacuate when we issue evacuation orders so firefighters can be in there working”, he said.
Hearst said the fire was burning the eastern portion of the ranch, which is mostly uninhabited wildlands, so the losses have been kept to a minimum. The 19,629-acre Cedar fire burning in Kern and Tulare counties was 5% contained. Wildfires have burned about 530 square miles in eight western states just this week.
The Chimney Fire spread within two miles of the castle, but by Monday afternoon, flames were thwarted back by fire crews to three miles.
The family were out running an errand when the fire broke out and were unable to return to save anything.
The state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says the blaze in San Bernardino County mountain areas is 100 percent contained Tuesday after charring almost 57 square miles of drought-dry brush.
Crews over the weekend slowed the fire’s advance toward the castle by concentrating firefighters and engines in the area between the castle and the fire’s edge.
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A 2014 study by the state’s human resources department found state firefighters receive one-third less in pay and benefits, on average, than their counterparts at fire departments for 18 California cities and two counties surveyed. While the collection of 25,000 works of art and artifacts remained in place, Chambers said a contingency plan exists if the fire were to further threaten the mansion.
