Small fire briefly closes Sonora highway. What else has burned in tinder-dry region?
A half-acre wildfire Tuesday briefly closed part of Highway 49 in Sonora but did not damage any homes.
The blaze is one of several in the region amid a third straight year of drought and typical summer heat. One in Yosemite National Park threatens a sequoia grove.
The Sonora fire might have started in a homeless camp in the Southgate Drive area, according to mymotherlode.com. The closure of the highway, also called Stockton Road, ran until midafternoon from Highway 108 near Jamestown to Ponderosa Way.
The fire is in the same general area as one that destroyed 18 structures and burned about 100 acres of brush and timber in August 2021. It threatened Sonora’s historic downtown at one point.
Cal Fire reported containing a wildfire Monday near Highway 132 in the Roberts Ferry area. The acreage was not available. Firefighters from the Modesto and Tuolumne County departments aided the response.
The Washburn Fire in Yosemite topped 3,200 acres by Tuesday morning, but officials were hopeful that it would spare the hundreds of giant trees in the Mariposa Grove, the Fresno Bee reported.
Containment has reached 95% on the Electra Fire, which has burned nearly 4,500 acres in Calaveras and Amador counties since July 4, Cal Fire said.
The drought has dried out grass, brush and timber faster than usual this year. But the region has wildfires even in wet years because few storms happen from June to October.
The 2022 season happens amid an unprecedented effort to thin wildfire fuel through prescribed burning, logging and other means. A coalition in Tuolumne County has state and federal funding to do such work.
This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 7:57 AM.
