Groveland, --
Tuolumne County - Firefighters battled fierce winds Monday as the raging fire near Yosemite National Park pushed forward on two fronts, threatening the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and at least three local towns.
The giant Rim Fire moved northwest and southeast toward the communities of Tuolumne, Twain Harte and Ponderosa Hills, where hundreds of firefighters made a determined stand, hoping to halt the spread of what is now the 13th-largest fire in California history.
More than 3,700 firefighters, who rushed in from all over the country, managed to slow the advance of the blaze, which had grown to more than 250 square miles on the western edge of Yosemite. But thousands of homes, many in the hills above the Gold Rush-era city of Sonora, remained threatened.
Gov. Jerry Brown visited the area Monday, pledging to commit the money and personnel needed to control the blaze.
"We have to spend what it takes," Brown said, just days after declaring a state of emergency that will help draw federal resources to the firefighting effort. On Monday, federal disaster officials offered to pay up to 75 percent of the cost.
Only stumps remain
The cause of the fire, which erupted Aug. 17 in a remote section of the Stanislaus National Forest, is not known. Twenty-three structures have been destroyed, and two people have been injured, fire officials said.
One of the biggest casualties so far is the city of Berkeley's popular 15-acre Tuolumne Camp, which was a smoking ruin Monday, its rustic cabins burned to cinders. The once-picturesque camp on the south fork of the Tuolumne River, where as many as 3,500 campers a year have visited since 1922, was a jumble of charred wood, ash and blackened bedsprings amid crumpled corrugated tin roofs.
The swimming hole was surrounded by blackened stumps and smoldering wreckage, and the beach was littered with deflated rafts, children's flip-flops, lifeguard vests and other vacation detritus, as if the campers had dropped everything and made a mad dash to escape the approaching fire.
Generations of campers who had attended the city-run camp were mourning its devastation.
"Having a place where time stands still is really important, and I loved that about that place," said Sarah Miller, an Oakland resident who has visited the camp with her husband and two daughters for most of the past eight years.
Now she's wondering if she'll be able to return.
Movement slows
Berkeley officials said historical items, such as photographs and wall hangings, were removed last week when the campers were evacuated.
San Francisco officials said Monday that the city-owned Camp Mather, which has been a retreat for San Francisco families for decades, has so far been spared by flames, though the fire continues to burn in the area.
The Rim Fire is spreading more slowly than it was last week. Late Monday, state fire officials reported that the blaze was 20 percent contained - more than double the figure from a day earlier. Still, the dry landscape, steep terrain and high temperatures were complicating the fight.
The fire grew from 144,000 acres Sunday to 150,000 acres Monday afternoon.
"It's still spreading in all directions except" in the small portion of the perimeter where a fire line has been built, said Michael Williams, spokesman for the Rim Fire incident command team. On Sunday, "they made very good progress on it, but it still burned 15,720 acres."
Dick Fleishman, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman speaking on behalf of agencies battling the fire, said crews were making a stand near Tuolumne, where high winds were putting communities in danger. Firefighters used bulldozers to cut firebreaks near what locals call Duckwall Mountain, the last obstacle preventing the flames from rushing into Tuolumne and Twain Harte. Planes and helicopters dropped retardant and water on the leading edge of the inferno.
"We have a lot of folks up there trying to pinch that thing off," Fleishman said. "We're making a lot of progress in the northwest area."
An evacuation advisory is in place for parts of Tuolumne, Twain Harte and Ponderosa Pines, Fleishman said.
Out of harm's way
Those who had already left told of the advancing flames and unbearable smoke.
"I have lived here for 30 years, and I have never seen a fire spread that fast," said Shelly Davis-King, 64, who evacuated with her husband, John Lytle, from their home in Tuolumne, where the couple watched as the fire marched toward their home. She has been volunteering with the Lions Club and Red Cross since Thursday.
Bob Milligan, 66, and his wife, Debbie Stirman, 62, said the smoke got so bad that they had to leave their Twain Harte home. The couple, who are dealing with respiratory and heart problems, have been staying since Saturday at the Red Cross shelter at the Tuolumne County fairgrounds in Sonora.
"Every morning we would wake up and the fire would be bigger," said Stirman. "It was very worrisome. The smoke was getting worse and worse, and then the ash started to fall. That's when we decided we had to get out."
More than 1,000 meals have been served at the Red Cross shelter, including meals for 91 evacuees who stayed there Sunday, according to Tom Penhallegon, the meals coordinator for the Sonora Lions Club.
Meanwhile, the threat of fire lessened in the Groveland area, a tourist hub on Highway 120. Evacuation orders were lifted in the communities of Pine Mountain Lake and Buck Meadows over the weekend, but fire officials said 4,500 structures were still considered under threat.
Licking at Yosemite
Flames continued to burn the western flanks of Yosemite near Lake Eleanor. The fire was burning on both sides of Highway 120 on Monday, as the prevailing winds pushed the edge ever closer to Hetch Hetchy.
The park's Highway 120 entrance remains shut down, and some lower-elevation sections of the park are closed, including the White Wolf campground and lodge, Hetch Hetchy-area trails and the Hodgdon Meadow campground, officials said.
While more of Yosemite is expected to burn, flames had torched only about 15,000 acres of the park - or 2 percent. Most of Yosemite remains open, including heavily visited Yosemite Valley. The park can be entered through Highway 140 from Merced and Highway 41 from Fresno.
Park officials were also beefing up fire personnel at two of Yosemite's three groves of giant sequoias. Sprinklers were running and crews were digging trenches at the Merced and Tuolumne groves, to protect the trees should the fire approach.
