A forest fire out of control for three days in Yosemite Park, California (western United States), now threatens its giant sequoias, the natural park announced on Sunday. The fire, which has reached Mariposa Grove (“The Butterfly Grove”), the park’s most prized area because it contains hundreds of the world’s largest redwoods, “currently covers 644 hectares and nothing is stop it,” the park said, pointing out that 360 firefighters were mobilized.
One of the teams prepares the “Grizzly Giant” – the park’s most famous and spectacular giant sequoia – for the approaching flames by continuously watering it. “At 209 feet (64 m), it is the second tallest in Yosemite,” says the park, which broadcasts the measures taken to protect it on social networks.
#WashburnFire Daily Update for July 10, 2022. Currently 1,591 acres, 0% contained with 360 firefighters assigned to the fire.@YosemiteNPS pic.twitter.com/31PUAEPzyS
— Yosemite Fire and Aviation Management (@YosemiteFire) July 10, 2022
Giant Sequoias are some of the most fire resistant trees and have been able to survive for thousands of years. But extreme drought and forest fires that now last much longer can damage them. This is how 10,000 of them – about 14% of the total number of sequoias in the world – perished in 2020 in a large fire.
“Given the combustion conditions and the wildfires that we are talking about, we expect to have another four, five or six very hard months,” warned in June one of the California fire officials, Brian Fennessy. This area of Yosemite Park has been largely redeveloped and reopened in 2018.