Airtanker Crashes While Fighting Yosemite Wildfire
By NBC Bay Area Staff
An airtanker crashed Tuesday while battling a wildfire burning inside Yosemite National Park, park officials confirmed.
The tanker was fighting the Dog Rock Fire when it went down. Emergency crews were looking for the plane late Tuesday afternoon, Cal Fire officials said.
The aircraft was assigned to the wildfire burning near Yosemite's Arch Rock, Cal Fire said. The wildfire has also forced the shutdown of a highway that serves as a main park entrance and the evacuation of several dozen homes.
The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said the blaze broke out shortly before 3 p.m. Tuesday near Highway 140, which leads into the heart of the park. It has grown to about 130 acres.
Park officials said the community of Foresta, consisting of about 60 homes on the west side of Yosemite, is under evacuation orders. It's not clear how many of the homes were occupied or how many people have actually evacuated.
The same community had to evacuate for several weeks in July from one of several major wildfires that has burned in the park this year.
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