A wildfire blazing near one of the main entrances to Yosemite National Park in California has wiped out 12 houses and is jeopardizing hundreds more, forcing the evacuation of over 200 residences, U.S. officials announced.

The blaze, named the Telegraph Fire, had burned more than 26,000 acres since Friday as forested slants burst into flames amid the hot, arid conditions that have afflicted California for months. In addition to the homes destroyed, the fire had also overcome 27 other buildings.

Some 2,000 firefighters have been positioned in order to contain the fire. Furthermore, to facilitate their work and protect them as they operated near power lines, authorities cut electricity to a wide area, including the national park.

The blazes were progressing eastward and southward on Sunday evening towards the town of Mariposa, where some 1,800 people have their homes, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Officials requested the evacuations of 195 homes under direct threat, but some residents disobeyed the orders and did not leave their houses in order to protect their property. The majority of the evacuated homes are in the town of Midpines, about 12 miles from the Yosemite National Park.

Approximately 2,000 homes encountered at least some danger from the rapid spread of the flames, said Wayne Barringer, a state fire spokesman on the scene, cited by the Associated Press.

In Southern California, thousands of visitors were forced to leave Los Angeles zoo on Sunday as a brush fire which had singed about 25 acres approached the site. Moreover, BBC cited a zoo spokesman as saying that condors and two vultures had to be transferred somewhere else, as flames burned within 1,000 ft of a California condor enclosed space.