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Has been updated:Three Rivers, CA (AP) —Sunday’s hot and dry weather is being used by California firefighters fighting to prevent further flames from pushing further into the ancient Sequoia forest, which wraps the roots of the tallest trees in the world. Protective foil added to the challenges you face.
Fire officials have warned that strong winds are also contributing to a “serious fire condition” in the area of the KNP complex, two lightning flames that merged west of Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Until Sunday, the National Meteorological Service issued a fire alarm warning that gusts and low humidity could create conditions for the rapid spread of wildfires.
The fire forced the park to evacuate last week with part of the Three Rivers, a hilly area of about 2,500 people. The crew has smashed the line between the fire and the community.
Over 34 square miles (88 square kilometers) of forest area are blackened.
The National Park Service said on Friday that the flames reached the westernmost tip of the Giant Forest and burned a group of Sequoia known as the “four guards” indicating the entrance to the 2,000 Sequoia forest.
Firefighters wrapped the roots of General Sherman’s tree, along with other trees in the giant forest, in a type of aluminum that could withstand high heat. It wasn’t immediately clear how the four guards who received the same treatment carried it, said fire spokeswoman Katie Hooper on Saturday.
According to the National Park Service, General Sherman’s tree is the largest in the world in volume at 52,508 cubic feet (1,487 cubic meters). It rises 275 feet (84 meters) high and has a circumference of 103 feet (31 meters) above the ground.
Firefighters, who wrapped the roots of sequoia in foil and wiped leaves and needles from the floor around the trees, had to escape the danger on Friday, Hooper said. They returned on Saturday when conditions improved to continue work and launch a strategic fire along the Generals Highway to protect the Giant Forest Gloves, Hooper said.
Giant sequoias are adaptable to fire and can help them prosper by releasing seeds from the cones and creating clearings that allow young sequoias to grow. However, the extraordinary intensity of fire caused by climate change can overwhelm trees.
“If a fire burns in a tree, it will be deadly,” said John Wallace, chief of operations at the KNP Complex.
The fire is already burning in several orchards, including trees 200 feet (61 meters) high and 2,000 years old.
In the south, Windifier grows to 28 square miles (72 square kilometers) at the Tree River Indian Reservation and Giant Sequoia National Monument, where it burns on Sequoia’s Peylon Grove, threatening others.
The fire also reached the Long Meadow Grove, a national monument with 100 giant sequoia trails. Fire authorities have not yet identified how much damage was done to orchards in remote and difficult-to-reach areas.
The historic drought associated with climate change makes it difficult to fight wildfires. It killed millions of trees in California alone. Scientists say climate change will continue to make the west much warmer, drier, more extreme weather, and more frequent and destructive wildfires in the last three decades.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire, more than 7,000 wildfires in California this year damaged or destroyed more than 3,000 homes and other buildings and burned far more than 3,000 square miles (7,770 square kilometers) of land. bottom.
California firefighters scramble to protect sequoia groves | WGN Radio 720
Source link California firefighters scramble to protect sequoia groves | WGN Radio 720
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