Important Takeaways:

• With much of the country in the grip of a heat wave that is set to break daily temperature records and make conditions dangerously hot during the holiday weekend, a large and uncontained blaze near Yosemite National Park has triggered evacuations and forced hospital patients to shelter in place.
• Evacuations ordered as new California wildfire ignites in scorching heat wave
• Meteorologists warned earlier this week that the holiday period could be hit by a dual threat of dangerously high heat and wildfires.
• Almost the entire town of Mariposa was under a mandatory evacuation order, with a large area to the east under an evacuation warning.
• In Northern California the much larger Thompson Fire continues to rage across Butte County, where it has burned through almost 3,800 acres and is 46% contained as of Friday morning.
• Many Fourth of July celebrations were canceled across California on Thursday as temperatures soared past the 100 degree mark, while places reached 110.

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