{O/C} A massive state of emergency is under way in Northern California, where a relentless blaze has rattled the some 6,000 residents displaced.
The Oak fire is now menacing the Yosemite National Park boasting the precious giant sequoias.
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Stultifying smoke billowed high into the skies of Mariposa County.
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The satanic Oak Fire reared its ugly head on Friday afternoon and boomed in size overnight,
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as it gutted these homes in mere seconds.
The fear was indescribable.
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RODNEY McGUIRE, Evacuee:
Sheriffs came up and you gotta go now. It's just like a hurricane.
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The impregnable blaze has rendered more than 1,600 acres of land in the county a smouldering wreck.
By Saturday morning, the conflagration had mutilated 10 residential and commercial buildings, forcing over 6,000 to evacuate, with some reportedly trapped in their homes.
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Husband and wife unable to get out of their house.
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Heavy gusts have inflamed the tug-of-war, despite the help of fire retardant from helicopters above.
That galvanised California's governor, Gavin Newsom, to subject the Mariposa County to a state of emergency.
A section of Highway 140 into Yosemite was shut as the fire genie gets out of the bottle and reaches the treasured sequoias inside.
The heat waves gripping the entire country as well as low humidity have exacerbated the predicament.
Meantime, excellent progress was reported on the Washburn Fire front, now that it's 79 percent contained.
But the damage is already done, given more than 19.4 square kilometres of the forest have been singed.
Still, the Oak Fire is burgeoning apace, and salvaging the giant sequoias will entail unremitting resolve.
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