The Closure Was Extended, and the Fire Has Nearly Stopped Growing
103 acres added in a day against 618 the day before. Containment holding at 15 percent, personnel down for the first time, and the park's closure list unchanged this morning.
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 3,898 acres on the latest interagency mapping, up 103 acres in a day. The day before it added 618. Containment is holding at 15 percent and assigned personnel have dropped from 840 to 789, which is the first time that number has gone down 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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