Crews were watching the weather this weekend as they battled California wildfires that have burned into some groves of ancient sequoias as they try to protect the world’s largest tree.
The National Weather Service issued a weather watch for critical fire conditions in the Sequoia National Park in the Sierra Nevada, where two lightning-caused fires merged Friday after making its largest growth in a week. The fire reached the western tip of the Giant Forest, where it burned four sequoias known as the “Four Guardsmen” that flank the road into the grove of 2,000 sequoias.
The extent of the fire’s damage on the trees has not been determined.
Firefighters have wrapped the base of the General Sherman Tree, along with other trees in the Giant Forest, in fire-resistant aluminum of the type used in wildland firefighter emergency shelters and to protect historic wooden buildings, fire spokeswoman Katy Hooper said.
The General Sherman Tree is the largest in the world by volume, at 52,508…