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Mariposa, California: Thousands of firefighters continued to battle a growing blaze near the Yosemite National Park on Monday but steep terrain and high temperatures made their task extremely difficult.
An estimated 4,000 homes were threatened - double the number in danger over the weekend. The Telegraph fire, which began on Friday when four residents went target shooting in the remote woods, has claimed 12 homes.
Officials declined to name the man who fired the shot believed to have sparked the 26,000-acre blaze. But Sarah Gibson, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said on Monday that investigators had found that the shooter did not act negligently and that no charges had been filed.
The fire began at a high elevation, authorities said, and the most difficult part of fighting it has been the terrain, which has made it hard to bring resources and personnel to the rugged region west of Yosemite National Park.
Nasty terrain
"The Merced River Canyon is some of the steepest, nastiest terrain," said forestry department unit chief Mikel Martin.
Martin said firefighters initially tried to airlift resources to parts of the fire, but there was too much smoke. Bulldozers were no help clearing the steep area. The command post is a three-hour drive from the northern reaches of the fire through winding mountain roads.
As a result, said Deputy Incident Commander Kevin Smith, "the fire's been dictating what we do. Today, we're going to start to dictate to the fire what's going to occur."
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