The wildfire threat to the world’s tallest trees in California is almost over, and the fire is now spreading from giant sequoias in Yosemite National Park, a forest official said Thursday.
More than 1,000 firefighters have been scrambling to contain the Washburn Fire, which broke out a week ago and for days threatened the world-famous Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias.
“The threat is essentially almost gone,” Stanley Bercovitz, a spokesman for the US Forest Service, told AFP.
“Currently none [of the giant sequoias] were killed. You never know, down the street. In two years, maybe some of the younger ones will start turning their needles yellow… it could be the fire,” he added.
“But otherwise… almost every tree was very fortunate to have an inferior fire burning around it.”
With over 500 mature trees, the Mariposa Grove is the largest group of redwoods in Yosemite.
Giant sequoias are the largest trees in the world by volume. Their relatives, the California redwoods, can grow taller—well over 100 meters (330 feet)—but aren’t as wide.
Crews worked to remove rapidly burning leaves, sticks, and branches. Sprinklers powered by water tanks run 24 hours a day increasing the overall humidity in the area.
The fire has spread over 4,375 acres (1,770 hectares) and is 23 percent contained, according to the latest official data.
It is currently moving north and east into the neighboring Sierra National Forest.
Weather conditions have aided efforts to bring the fire under control.
“It’s not powered by the wind. It’s powered only by the fuels,” Bercovitz said.
He added: “The threat has not completely disappeared. Until the fire is 100 percent under control, there is still some threat.
“But it is currently heavily reduced and burning away [from the giant sequoias].”
Giant sequoias, which can live for thousands of years, typically endure many fires, the heat from which helps their cones open and seeds to disperse.
But longer, hotter, more aggressive fires can damage them, sometimes beyond repair, and California has recently experienced back-to-back severe fire seasons.
In 2020, up to 10,000 of the giants – up to 14 percent of the world’s total – died in a fire, and another 3,600 died last year.
Scientists say global warming, caused largely by humanity’s uncontrolled burning of fossil fuels, is making extreme weather events more likely.
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