The fire is “not under control at all,” Nancy Phillips, a spokeswoman for the park’s Yosemite wildfire outreach, told AFP.
A wildfire that has been raging out of control for three days in California’s Yosemite Park is now threatening the giant sequoias.
Hundreds of firefighters are battling flames that have reached Mariposa Grove, the area of ​​the park that is home to some of the tallest trees in the world. The fire is “not under control at all,” Nancy Phillips, a spokeswoman for the park’s Yosemite wildfire outreach, told AFP.
The weather conditions are not helping at all: the heat and dryness will continue in the coming days.
“We’re doing everything we can to put it out, we’re using aircraft and helicopters,” in addition to foot forces, Philip added. About 545 firefighters are in the area and their number is expected to increase in the coming hours.
This area of ​​the park was redesigned and reopened to the public in 2018. Yosemite is one of America’s largest and best-known parks. Residents of the village of Waowona, home to several hotels for tourists who come to admire the landscape of steep slopes and waterfalls, have been ordered to evacuate for several days.
A group of volunteers takes care of the rescue of the “Grizzly Giant”, the most famous and impressive sequoia of the park, by constantly dousing it with water. The “Grizzly Giant”, with a height of 64 meters, is the second tallest tree in Yosemite, according to experts.
Moderate fires are generally unable to destroy giant sequoias, which are adapted to this type of disaster and are protected by their thick bark and the fact that their first branches can be thirty meters high, where they do not the flames are enough. In contrast, sequoias need fires to reproduce: the heat causes their pine cones to burst and fall to the ground like popcorn, releasing hundreds of seeds. But these giants, which grow only in California, cannot resist more intense fires, such as those that have occurred in recent years, due to climate change. In September 2021, while the fires were raging in the area, rescuers wrapped the giant sequoias, including the “General Sherman”, one of the tallest trees in the world, with a height of 83 meters, with fire blankets.
RES-EMP
View the news feed and get the latest news.
