Yosemite wildfire update: Firefighters lose some containment as Washburn Fire grows

Fire fighters lost some containment ground Tuesday night on the fire burning in Yosemite National Park.

Burning for the past six days, the Washburn Fire grew about 300 acres to 3,516 acres since the fire crew’s previous update from early Tuesday morning.

And the containment of the Washburn Fire had dwindled to 17% despite reaching 25% containment Monday afternoon.

Increased fire activity and the warm weather were the cause of fire containment trending the wrong direction, according to the Washburn Fire incident report.

“The combination of continued warm and dry weather conditions along with the heavy accumulation of large fuels is creating the perfect recipe for the very active fire behavior we are seeing,” according to Tuesday evening’s incident update. “Observers from a distance should expect to see heavy smoke production for the next few days as the fire activity increases each afternoon when the temperatures are at their highest and relative humidity’s are at their lowest.”

There’s a total of 1,045 personnel helping combat the Washburn Fire.

Officials have expressed confidence that the giant sequoias trees do not appear to be directly threatened by the fire, as was the concern initially.

But fire crews are also preparing for the possibility of the fire expanding further and becoming more active.

“Expecting the next several days to provide active-to-very active fire behavior in heavy dead and down fuels with episodes of group torching, short crown runs, and spotting,” according to Tuesday night’s incident report. “Afternoon conditions are producing areas of high intensity fire behavior on the east flank of the fire resulting in additional acreage.

“Continued warming and drying over the next several days will likely provide increased fire behavior with additional fire growth and smoke production.”

Firefighters could get a slight break Wednesday with high pressure expected to slightly ease, which would lead to slightly cooler conditions.

It’s predicted over the next 72 hours that peak warming and drying period late in the week will provide active to very active fire behavior on uncontained portions of the fire.

This story was originally published July 12, 2022 at 10:01 PM with the headline "Yosemite wildfire update: Firefighters lose some containment as Washburn Fire grows."