Yosemite National Park will close due to fire

Yosemite Valley will shut down Wednesday as fire crews try to stop the Ferguson Fire from spreading into the national park, according to fire crews.

A noon closure will be imposed on a portion of Highway 41 from Wawona to the tunnel entry into Yosemite Valley, according to Yosemite National Park Superintendent Michael Reynolds.

The closure is expected to last until Sunday.

“Get yourself out of here if you can,” Reynolds told a group of evacuees, tourists and park employees inside the Yosemite Valley Auditorium on Tuesday morning.

Visitors in Yosemite Valley were being asked to evacuate as fears grew that Highway 41 would become “a very dangerous place,” Reynolds said. Food supplies were expected to diminish due to the closure on Highway 41.

Yosemite National Park spokesman Scott Gediman said visitors at park campgrounds and hotels were allowed to stay Tuesday night and encouraged to leave by Wednesday morning.

“We’re going down to basic operations in the park,” Gediman said.

The Ferguson Fire has consumed 37,795 acres of wild land and is 26 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. A Cal Fire worker died fighting the fire and six other firefighters have been injured.

Fire crews have kept a 24-hour watch on the fire, according to Rocky Oplinger, from California Interagency Incident Management. He said the fire is moving aggressively through El Portal. Efforts are underway to preserve Yosemite, with plans to do a burnout operation and keep the fire from moving into Yosemite West.