California wildfire: the world’s tallest tree was wrapped in a blanket to protect it from the flames

Firefighters wrapped the base of the world’s tallest tree in a fireproof blanket as part of an effort to save a famous forest of gigantic ancient redwoods in the Forest fires burn in the harsh Sierra Nevada of California.

The colossal General Sherman tree in the giant forest of Sequoia National Park, some other redwoods, the Giant Forest Museum and other buildings have been shrouded to protect against the possibility of intense flames, said fire spokeswoman Rebecca Paterson.

Aluminum wrap can withstand intense heat for short periods of time. Federal officials have said they have used the material for several years throughout the western United States to protect sensitive structures from the flames. Near Lake Tahoe, some homes wrapped in protective material survived a recent wildfire, while others nearby were destroyed.

It was expected that the Colony fire, one of the two burning in Sequoia National Park and named after the area it started in, will reach the Giant Forest, a grove of 2,000 sequoias, within days, according to fire officials.

However, the fire did not increase significantly on Thursday as a blanket of smoke slowed its spread in the morningFire Department spokeswoman Katy Hooper said.

The flames erupted after a forest fire in the area last year killed thousands of redwoods, some as tall as skyscrapers and thousands of years old.

The General Sherman tree is the largest in the world by volume, at 1,487 cubic meters, according to the National Park Service. It rises to 84 meters high and has a circumference of 31 meters at ground level.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Superintendent Clay Jordan stressed the importance of protecting huge trees from wildfires. high intensity during a briefing for the firefighters.

A story of 50 years of prescribed burning -fires lit on purpose to eliminate other types of trees and vegetation that would otherwise fuel forest fires- In the parks’ redwood groves, help the giant trees survive by reducing the impact if the flames reach them.

a “A solid record of prescribed burns in this region is a source of optimism”Paterson said. “I hope the Forest of Giants emerges unscathed.”

Giant sequoias are adapted to fire, which can help them thrive by freeing the seeds from their cones and creating spaces for young redwoods to thrive. But the extraordinary intensity of fires – fueled by climate change – can overwhelm trees.

It happened last year when the fire of the castle erased what studies estimate to be between 7,500 and 10,600 large sequoias, according to the National Park Service.

A historic drought and heatwaves linked to climate change have made wildfires more difficult to fight in the American West. Scientists say climate change has made the region much hotter and drier over the past 30 years and will continue to do the weather is more extreme and forest fires more frequent and destructive.

A national interagency fire management team has taken command of efforts to tackle the 30-square-kilometer Paradise fire and the 8-square-kilometer Colony fire, closest to the grove. In this area, operations were carried out to burn vegetation and other fuels likely to fuel the flames.

The fires forced the park to be evacuated this week, and parts of the town of Three Rivers, outside the main entrance, remained evacuated.

To the south, a fire in the Tule River Indian Reservation and Giant Sequoia National Monument increased dramatically overnight to over 15 square kilometers, and crews could not contain it, according to a statement from the Sequoia National Forest.

The fire of the wind, also triggered by lightning, it burned down part of the Peyrone redwood grove in the national monument, and other groves were threatened.

“Due to the inaccessibility of the land, a preliminary assessment of the effects of the fire on the giant sequoias of the grove will be difficult and may take days to complete “the statement said.

The blaze prompted the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office to warn the communities of Ponderosa, Quaking Aspen, Johnsondale and Camp Whitsett, a boy scout camp, to prepare to evacuate if necessary.

The wildfires are the latest in a long summer of fires that have burned nearly 3,550 square miles (9,195 square kilometers) in California, destroying hundreds of homes.

Crews had limited access to the colony blaze and the extreme slope of the terrain around the Paradise blaze prevented it entirely, requiring a large amount of water and flame retardants to be drawn from it. air on both fires.

(By Noah Berger and John Antczak – AP)

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