The firefighters prepare the “Grizzly Giant”, the most spectacular redwood in the American park, as the flames approaches by permanently watering it.
Le Monde with AFP and Reuters
In the United States, an out of control forest fire for three days in Yosemite National Park, in eastern California, now threatens its giant redwoods, the Natural Park announced on Sunday 10 July.
The fire, which has reached Mariposa Grove (“Le Bosquet du Papillon”), the most popular sector in the park because there are hundreds of sequoias among the largest in the world, “is currently expanding on 644 hectares and nothing stops it, “said the park, stating that 360 firefighters were mobilized. Part of the park was closed to the public on Friday.
The Washburn Fire is Burning Near the Lower Portion of the Mariposa Grove. The Fire is about Five to Eight Acres. F… https://t.co/mfq4ldumxb
The “Grizzly Giant” is permanently drunk
One of the teams is preparing the “Grizzly Giant” – the most famous and spectacular giant sequoia in the park – as the flames approaches by watering it permanently. “From the top of its 209 feet [64 meters], it is the second largest in Yosemite,” said the park, which broadcasts on social networks the measures taken to protect it.
preparing for Fire: The Grizzly Giant is the Most Renowned Giant Sequoia in Yosemite National Park. Standing at 209… https://t.co/zi5ggfodfm
The giant redwoods are among the trees that are best resistant to fires and that is how they were able to survive thousands of years.
But extreme drought and forest fires which now last much longer, can damage them. This is how 10,000 of them – approximately 14 % of the total number of redwoods worldwide – perished in 2020 in a large fire.
“Given the combustion conditions and the forest fires we are talking about, we expect to have another four, five or six months very harsh”, had warned one of the officials of the California firefighters, Brian in June Fennessy.
This sector of the Yosemite Park was largely redeveloped and had reopened in 2018.
Nearly two million hectares burned in the United States this year, a figure more than twice as high as the average of the decade has passed, according to data from the National Interangency Fire Center. New Mexico and Alaska are particularly affected, while almost all of California is in drought.