River Fire burns thousands of acres west of Oakhurst, California

Bill Gabbert
July 13, 2021

10 a.m. PDT July 13, 2021

River Fire map. The white line was the perimeter mapped by an aircraft at 10:30 p.m. PDT July 12, 2021. The red areas represent heat detected by a satellite at 3:18 a.m. MDT July 13, 2021.

CAL FIRE reported Tuesday morning that the River Fire 6 miles west of Oakhurst has burned 9,500 acres and destroyed 5 structures.

As of 7:30 a.m Monday, mandatory (leave now) evacuation orders were in effect for Road 800, Road 810, Road 812, Road 600, Apache Road to 612 both sides, Road 600 between Apache Ranch and Blazing Saddle Trail, and JWP Ranch Road.

Resources on the fire include 161 engines, 24 dozers, 24 water tenders, and 30 hand crews for a total of 1,327 personnel. CAL FIRE Incident Management Team 6 has assumed command of the fire.

The River Fire started July 11 and is 10 miles southeast of Mariposa and 28 miles north of Fresno.

On Monday firefighters were working on the fire while the temperature was 99 degrees at the Grub Gulch weather station, with southwest winds gusting at 10 to 17 mph. The forecast for Tuesday is for 101 degrees, 15 percent relative humidity, and 8 to 10 mph southwest and west winds. These are not extreme conditions, but very conducive to continued fire spread with very dry fuels. The forecast for Wednesday is about the same but a bit cooler — 97 degrees.