Firefighters continued to make good moves toward containing a destructive blaze near the Yosemite National Park in Northern California, authorities said on Thursday.
Nearly 4,500 firefighters continued to battle the fire, which claimed 21 homes and displaced thousands of people after it erupted a week ago, according to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS)
The blaze remained 40-percent contained Thursday morning, but authorities hope that number will rise as the day wears on and firefighters battle the last stubborn flames on the north side of the nearly 34,000-acre (13,770-hectare) conflagration, said USFS spokeswomen Suzanne Grin.
"I think we are feeling good," Grin said.
As the fire died down, rural residents began returning home to charred neighborhoods, but about 100 homes around the towns of Mariposa and Midpines were still off limits.
The destructive blaze has scorched 50 square miles (80 square kilometers) of Sierra terrain west of Yosemite.
An army of more than two dozen helicopters and aerial tankers has been dropping retardant on the northern edge of the fire, while hand crews and bulldozers construct firebreaks and prepare for possible back burns to halt the flames' advance.
"They're throwing everything they've got at the north side," said Sarah Gibson, a fire headquarters spokeswoman.
The blaze appeared to have begun late Friday when two men and two women went into remote woods to shoot rocks with a rifle, investigators said.
Source:Xinhua
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