Largest tree in the world still threatened by California wildfires

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The tallest tree in the world is safe from a raging wildfire – for now.

The General Sherman, a 275-foot-tall, 36-foot-wide giant sequoia tree that overlooks the trails of Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon in California, remained safe from the KNP complex fire on Saturday, a reported the Los Angeles Times.

But the 18,000-acre conflagration, triggered by a September 9 thunderstorm, burned down part of the forest – and has approached alarmingly aux Quatre Gardes, the famous group of giant sequoias that generations of tourists have known as the gateway to the park.

General Sherman, a 2,000-year-old behemoth considered the world’s largest tree by volume, grows at the northern end of the forest.

Teams worked frantically on Friday to protect the park’s most iconic trees, including General Sherman, by wrapping their trunks in fire-retardant aluminum blankets and clearing flammable debris from their bases.

Firefighters wrap the Sequoia National Forest panel in fire-resistant structural wrap to protect it from the KNP complex fire.
Firefighters wrap the Sequoia National Forest panel with fire-resistant material to protect it from the KNP complex fire.
National Park Service via the EPA
Firefighters applying a fire-resistant structural wrap around giant sequoias threatened by the KNP complex fire in the Sequoia National Forest near Three Rivers, California, United States, September 17, 2021.
The General Sherman tree is 2,000 years old.
EPA / National Park Service DOCUMENT
Firefighters applying a fire-resistant structural wrap around giant sequoias threatened by the KNP complex fire in the Sequoia National Forest near Three Rivers, California, United States, September 17, 2021.
Firefighters were diligent in wrapping the General Sherman tree with fire retardant aluminum blankets.
EPA / National Park Service DOCUMENT

But authorities couldn’t predict where the fire – which is still zero percent contained – would go next.

“We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen today,” Steven Bekkerus, a public information officer for the Southern Zone Blue Fire Team, said on Saturday. “Today can be a day of active fire.”



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