Despite the continuing flame on California’s Sierra Nevada’s western side, the ancient big trees on the Giant Forest at the Sequoia National Park remained intact on Tuesday.
“As of right now we don’t have any damage to any of our trees,” according to fire information officer Mark Garrett.
With a combination of the two lightning fires, the KNP complex has continued to spread and reached over 39 square miles. It devoured other tree types that thrive on the mountain range’s high areas.
About 2, 000 sequoias are present in the Giant Forest. Among these is the General Sherman Tree, having the world’s largest by volume title in the world that draws visitors to the park.
Garrett said the bases of these trees were covered in fire-resistant protection as the fire has recently accessed the Giant Forests’ perimeter, and burned close to the large trees named the Four Guardsmen.
He said that firefighters have detected what they called a “low-intensity fire” entering through and assures that the sequoias will not be harmed.
The Giant Forest has long been under controlled fire to eliminate vegetation that can fan a wildfire like the KNP Complex.
Garret said that at least 6 miles or 9.6 kilometers away, the Redwood Canyon is located – the next-closest sequoia grove. Before reaching the location, the fire needs to go up and slide down the terrain.
“But like Giant Forest, that one has also seen prescribed burn treatments for several decades since the late ’60s so that grove is also well-equipped to transform a high-intensity fire into low-intensity fire,” he noted.
Another forest fire is seen in the south of Sequoia county but it manifests little movement, KPIX reported.
The coverage of the Windy Fire in the Giant Sequoia National Monument area and on the Tule River Indian Reservation reached 42 square miles. Only 5 percent of it was so far contained.
