US fire officials: California blaze 23% contained

The California wildfire burning at the edge of Yosemite National Park is around 23 percent contained, according to US fire officials, but media reports that the wildfire is heading deeper into Yosemite.

The US Forest Service said Wednesday that the so-called Rim Fire has consumed 301 square miles but it would be fully contained in three weeks, the Associated Press reported, citing fire officials.

“It’s looking better every day,” said incident spokesman Glen Stratton. “So far everything is holding.”

The blaze in northern California has destroyed more than 110 structures and is still threatening 4,500 more, the report said.

The fire approached a major reservoir near San Francisco. The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in the remote northwestern section of the park supplies 2.6 million people with water.

According to Reuters, the wildfire, standing at the sixth largest on record in state history, burned deeper into the Yosemite park on Wednesday and got closer to the tourist hub of Yosemite Valley.

The blaze has also caused air pollution problems in California cities far from the scene.

Forestry experts blame years of drought and wrong government policies for the inferno. But the exact cause of the blaze remained under investigation.

Forest ecologists have been warning for years that Western wildfires will get worse. The Rim Fire has been among the fastest-moving wildfires raging across the drought-parched region in the west that have strained national firefighting resources.