Watch a Beautiful Timelapse Video of the Devastating Yosemite Wildfire
The giant hellfire burning through Yosemite National Park continues to spread; by Wednesday morning the Rim Fire had grown to 187,500 acres, roughly the size of New York City. The fire is devastating, of course, but as the above video shows, it's also sort of beautiful, at least when captured with time-lapse photography.
The fire is already the seventh largest in California's history, and so far 111 structures have been destroyed with another 4,000 in harm's way. Over 4,200 firefighters are battling the fire, which is only 23 percent contained after nearly two weeks. Officials, however, are optimistic.
"It's looking better every day," Glen Stratton, a spokesman for one incident team, told NBC station KCRA of Sacramento. "So far, everything is holding."
Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said cooler weather, higher humidity and lighter winds have helped firefighters slow the fire's spread. "That's given us a greater opportunity to get in there and strengthen our containment lines,” he told the Los Angeles Times, adding that he expects full containment of the blaze by September 10.