Conditions described here were accurate only as of the date shown and may have changed. This is not a substitute for current official information from the agency with jurisdiction. See the full notice. Full notice.
The Closure Was Extended, and the Fire Is Past Four Thousand Acres
Up 234 acres since yesterday morning. Containment holding at 15 percent, personnel steady, and the park's closure list unchanged.
The emergency order that closed the Chilnualna Falls trail ran until 11:59 last night unless extended. It was extended. The park's own conditions page this morning still lists the Ostrander Lake Trail and everything south of it as closed, along with Chilnualna Falls and the routes toward Buena Vista and Crescent lakes, with the closed area running east of the Wawona Road between Chinquapin and Wawona. No new expiry has been published, so treat it as open-ended.
The fire is at 4,029 acres on the latest interagency mapping. It was 3,795 yesterday morning and 1,177 a week ago. Containment is holding at 15 percent with 789 personnel assigned, down from 840 earlier in the week — the first time that number has fallen since the fire started on September 15.
None of that is a reopening and none of it is containment. It is a fire that has run out of the easy ground and is now creeping in country crews can partly work. The 2017 Empire Fire footprint it burned into is doing some of the work, because a nine-year-old burn scar has less to give.
What has not changed: every road in the park is open, there have been no evacuation orders at any point, and smoke remains the part that reaches most visitors, with periods of unhealthy air around Wawona and into the Valley.
The two pilots killed on Sunday are still the story that matters here. The investigation by the FAA and NTSB continues and no cause has been released.
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