By Casey Newton
About 70 homes and two campgrounds were ordered to be evacuated Sunday as a wildfire spread outside Yosemite National Park, fire officials said.
The Motor Fire, which spread from a motor home blaze Thursday in the Merced River Canyon, w as 35 percent contained after burning more than 4,700 acres on both sides of the river.
The evacuation order for homes in and around Cedar Lodge affects two commercial buildings and 35 outbuildings, said National Park Service spokeswoman Kass Hardy. The Incline and Merced River Canyon Campgrounds were also evacuated.
Officials said homes in the nearby community of Rancheria Flats may need to be evacuated as well.
A 15-mile stretch of Highway 140, a main entrance into Yosemite, has been closed indefinitely, starting about 4 miles west of the park entrance and continuing east of Midpines.
The fire was spreading toward nearby Trumbull Peak, threatening a historic fire lookout tower, officials said. A DC-10 aircraft was dispatched to the blaze Sunday afternoon and made multiple drops of flame retardant on the fire's eastern edge.
Article courtesy of sfgate.com