fire, now scorched more than 17,000 acres. officials say the fire burning near yosemite national park is still only 16% contained. cnn national correspondent camila bernal is at the scene there. so, now, camila, officials say the blaze moving northeast, i just wonder what areas are this is this now threatening and can they get it under control? reporter: well, they hope they can get it under control, jim and poppy. good morning. they say they re doing everything they can, working 24/7 to work on that con containment, which as you said is now at 16%. what officials here say is that the fire is moving at unprecedented speeds. and that s because in part the ongoing drought here in this state of california, everything is dry. so you have things like a bark beetle and it has killed and essentially destroyed many, many of the trees in this area. so you have all these dead trees, all the dead material,
absolutely. and those are the kinds of things that firefighters are still working on, trying to put out some of these hot spots. because there is still a lot of work to be done here. officials say this is an unprecedented fire, and that s because of the speed at which these flames are traveling. and, look, it is dry here. it is part of the reason why the flames are traveling so fast, the ongoing drought here in a state of california. it causes things like a bark beetle, it kills a lot of the pine trees in this area, so you have a lot of dead trees, a lot of dead material, and all of that creates the perfect conditions for this fire to spread quickly. experts say this is a result of climate change, and it is sort of a domino effect, if you will. what we re left with is 17,000 acres, just burned and destroyed. 55 structures also destroyed, that number going up significantly. we know there are a lot of crews here. they do say that they re making progress, that they are trying their best,
more than 2,500 firefighters on the front lines battling steep terrain and heat to try and save homes. this is the third wildfire in mariposa county in two weeks. this area had beetle infes trags and it created tons. reporter: this is the third wildfire in mariposa county in two weeks. the washburn fire that threatened those legendary sequoias is still burning tonight. david, we are in exceptional drought. that is the highest level. parts of the west are now seeing their driest stretch in 1,200 years. a 22-year mega-drought that absolutely has to do why the fires burn so quickly. now, there are a lot of other factors, land use and management. you have to talk about the bark beetle. but you can t leave out climate change. a recent study says that by the year 2050, we could seal more uncontrolled, extreme wildfires, up to 30%, all due to climate change, david. and we ll stay on this here. ginger zee with us again