Sequoia National Park Fire: Flames enter Giant Forest, home to world’s largest trees

An increasingly ominous fire sparked by lightning and burning all week in California’s Sequoia National Park has now entered the park’s Giant Forest, home to five of the world’s largest trees, including the largest, the General Sherman Tree.

Fire officials said Saturday that the intensity of the fire and the extent of the damage wasn’t yet known.

On Friday night, flames burned into the western edge of the Giant Forest along the Generals Highway, around four landmark giant sequoias known the Four Guardsmen, said Steven Bekkerus, public information officer for the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies battling the blaze.

“Those trees were affected,” he said. “We don’t know what the impacts are yet.”

Satellite heat images Saturday afternoon showed that flames appeared to also have moved into the area near the Giant Forest Village, Telescope Tree and other landmarks visited by millions of tourists, where trees tower up to 275 feet tall and date back 3,000 years.
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