Battling the Yosemite Rim Fire

Los Angeles County firefighters backpack on a blaze band abreast Groveland, California, as smoke rises from the massive Rim Blaze afire abreast Yosemite National Park.

Now into its tenth day, the Rim Blaze threatens 4,500 homes alfresco of Yosemite National Park. Blaze crews accept independent about 20 percent of the wildfire, which has austere some 160,000 acres—an breadth about the admeasurements of Chicago.

"There accept been bigger portions of Yosemite austere in added fires, but there's never been a blaze as big as this one in Yosemite if you yield the [Rim Fire] as a whole," explained Tom Medema, a agent with Yosemite National Park.