Sky Fire Scorches 538 Acres

At Sierra National Park you can still see smoke from a fire that has so far scorched 538 acres. While some have had to evacuate the area, others are working hard to stop this from spreading. The sierra national forest is typically a relaxing, scenic place, but that wasn’t exactly the case this weekend.

"We jumped into action, got our evacuation plan going and started a long caravan of cars", says Ryan McKenzie with Calvin Crest Conferences.

A group of college students were attending a Christian summer camp when they were forced to leave their campgrounds.

"At the snap of a finger something could happen so we made sure everyone stayed together and evacuated ", says McKenzie.

The young adults weren’t the only ones that had to evacuate, at a campsite up the road empty chairs and tables are left from where a wedding was supposed to take place, all now covered in fire retardant.

"We’ve been telling the public from day one that this is going to be a real bad fire year and it came all at once", says Battalion Chief Burt Stalter with the Sierra National Forest.

Fire crews say this wasn’t the only fire they’ve been working.

Stalter says, "most of our resources were in Mariposa when this one broke out, so pretty much when that fire broke down we sent everything over here".

It all started when this truck and trailer caught fire late Thursday.

"As you can see here, it just takes one spark and then you’ve got a disaster here on your hands, it’s moving up these heavy hills, you can see all the dead timber and everything that’s here", says Cal Fire Battalion Chief Barry Rudolph.

Cal Fire crews were also out working to prevent the fire from spreading.

"We have approximately 4 strike teams available of engines, 3 or 4 strike teams of Cal Fire crews, several individual doser unit and one strike team of dosers", says Rudolph.

Heavy smoke also made a big impact for crews and planes as they tried to put out the fire.

"We’re hoping to get this tied in by tonight at least by tonight and hopefully be in mop up mode in the next few days", says Stalter.