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THREE RIVERS, Calif .– (AP) – Sunday’s hot, dry weather added to the challenges facing California firefighters as they struggle to keep the flames from sinking further into a grove of ancient redwoods, where the base of the tallest tree in the world was wrapped in a protective film.
Fire officials warned stronger winds were also contributing to “critical fire conditions” in the KNP complex area, two lightning-triggered fires that merged on the west side of Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada .
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning until Sunday, saying gusts and lower humidity could create conditions for the rapid spread of wildfires.
The fires forced the evacuation of the park last week, as well as parts of Three Rivers, a hilltop community of about 2,500 people. The teams bulldozed a line between the fire and the community.
More than 34 square miles (88 square kilometers) of forest land has been blackened.
The National Park Service said on Friday that the flames had reached the westernmost point of the giant forest, where they burned a group of redwoods known as the “Four Guards” which mark the entrance to the grove of 2,000 redwoods. .
Firefighters wrapped the base of the General Sherman tree, along with other trees in the Giant Forest, in a type of aluminum that could withstand high heat. It was not immediately clear how the four guards, who received the same treatment, fared, firefighter spokeswoman Katy Hooper said on Saturday.
The General Sherman tree is the world’s largest by volume, at 1,487 cubic meters (52,508 cubic feet), according to the National Park Service. It stands at 275 feet (84 meters) high and has a circumference of 103 feet (31 meters) at ground level.
Firefighters who wrapped the base of the redwoods in aluminum foil and swept leaves and needles from the forest floor around the trees had to flee the danger on Friday, Hooper said. They returned on Saturday when conditions improved to continue work and start a strategic fire along the Generals Highway to protect the giant forest grove, Hooper said.
Giant sequoias are adapted to fire, which can help them thrive by releasing seeds from their cones and creating clearings that allow young sequoias to thrive. But the extraordinary intensity of fires – fueled by climate change – can overwhelm trees.
“Once the fire burns inside the tree, it will lead to mortality,” said Jon Wallace, head of the operations section of the KNP complex.
Fires have already burned down in several groves containing trees up to 61 meters tall and 2,000 years old.
To the south, the Windy Fire has reached 28 square miles (72 square kilometers) in the Tule River Indian Reservation and the Giant Sequoia National Monument, where it burned the Peyrone Redwood Grove and threatened others.
The fire had also reached Long Meadow Grove, where the 100 Giant Sequoias Trail is a national monument. Firefighters have not yet been able to determine the extent of damage to the groves, which are in remote and hard-to-reach areas.
Historic drought related to climate change makes forest fires more difficult to fight. He killed millions of trees in California alone. Scientists say climate change has made the West much hotter and drier over the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and forest fires more frequent and destructive.
More than 7,000 California wildfires this year have damaged or destroyed more than 3,000 homes and other buildings and burned down more than 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) of land, according to the California Department of Forestry and Protection against fires.
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