--- title: California Firefighters Battle Massive Sand Fire Blaze description: Around 1,500 firefighters in Northern California were trying to contain the Sand Fire Sunday, officials said. The blaze has so far destroyed at least 10 homes and forced hundreds to evacuate canonical: https://time.com/3045739/sand-fire-california/ author: TIME Photo article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-28T14:51:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:22:22.935Z article:section: U.S. og:title: California Firefighters Battle Massive Blaze og:description: Around 1,500 firefighters in Northern California were trying to contain the Sand Fire Sunday, officials said. The blaze has so far destroyed at least 10 homes and forced hundreds to evacuate og:url: https://time.com/3045739/sand-fire-california/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccc6dacade72cdc5/69869d663bc999691b1a4b2b/california-wildfire-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Northern California Wildfire Sand Fire Yosemite og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: California Firefighters Battle Massive Blaze twitter:description: Around 1,500 firefighters in Northern California were trying to contain the Sand Fire Sunday, officials said. The blaze has so far destroyed at least 10 homes and forced hundreds to evacuate twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccc6dacade72cdc5/69869d663bc999691b1a4b2b/california-wildfire-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # California Firefighters Battle 'Sand Fire' Blaze by [TIME Photo](/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Jul 28, 2014 2:51 PM CUT  An aircraft drops fire retardant on a vineyard as firefighters battle the fast-moving "Sand Fire," near Plymouth, Calif. on July 26, 2014. An aircraft drops fire retardant on a vineyard as firefighters battle the fast-moving "Sand Fire," near Plymouth, Calif. on July 26, 2014.Max Whittaker—Reuters by [TIME Photo](/author/time-photo/) ## TIME Photo Jul 28, 2014 2:51 PM CUT ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3045739/sand-fire-california/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3045739/sand-fire-california/"},"headline":"California Firefighters Battle 'Sand Fire' Blaze","datePublished":"2014-07-28T14:51:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T09:22:22.935Z","description":"Around 1,500 firefighters in Northern California were trying to contain the Sand Fire Sunday, officials said. The blaze has so far destroyed at least 10 homes and forced hundreds to evacuate","url":"https://time.com/3045739/sand-fire-california/","keywords":["weather","California","Wildfire","fire"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccc6dacade72cdc5/69869d663bc999691b1a4b2b/california-wildfire-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Photo","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-photo/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltccc6dacade72cdc5/69869d663bc999691b1a4b2b/california-wildfire-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Northern California Wildfire Sand Fire Yosemite","caption":"Northern California Wildfire Sand Fire Yosemite","creditText":"Max Whittaker—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/weather/","name":"weather"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3045739/sand-fire-california/","name":"California Firefighters Battle 'Sand Fire' Blaze"}}]}] ```