A wildfire in Yosemite National Park that has spread over 1,500 acres is threatening a grove of hundreds of giant sequoias, including some that are centuries old.
The fire, now in its fourth day and fueled by timber and brush, is active in Mariposa Grove, the largest and most popular of the park’s three giant redwoods. The grove is home to some of the longest-lived and tallest trees in the world, including a tree called the Grizzly Giant that stands over 200 feet tall.
Nancy Phillip, spokeswoman for Yosemite Fire Information, said the fire was zero percent contained and that there was no estimate yet on the damage to the redwood trees.
Yuli Gotsev, marketing manager for The Redwoods at Yosemite, which operates about 120 vacation rentals in the park, said the company evacuated dozens of guests and staff members from Wawona Friday afternoon after receiving evacuation orders from authorities.
Although winds pushed the fire away from the community, he said he saw smoke billowing in the distance. “This is not our first forest fire,” he added. “We have some kind of reflex that we’ve developed over the years.”
Nearly a dozen helicopters and more than 360 firefighters participated in the extinguishing.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Wildfires are growing in size and intensity in the western United States. Experts say climate change is increasing wildfire risks.
Wawona Road is closed from the park’s south entrance to Henness Ridge Road, and Mariposa Grove is closed until further notice. All other areas of the park remain open, the Park Service said.
Emergency responders are “proactively protecting” the giant trees by removing fuels such as dead trees and using sprinkler systems to increase ground moisture, the Yosemite Fire Management Office said Sunday. Firefighters also used bulldozers to clear vegetation that was fueling the wildfire, the Associated Press reported.
With thick fibrous bark that acts as insulation and towering branches that can sometimes escape flames, redwoods are adapted to survive less intense fires. But in recent years, wildfires have become much more destructive to the giant sequoia trees that grow on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, the National Park Service said.
Between 2015 and 2021, more than 85 percent of the area of all redwood groves in the Sierra Nevada burned in wildfires, compared with 25 percent in the previous century, according to the Park Service.
Over the weekend, smoke obscured some of Yosemite’s most spectacular views.
On Saturday, a tour guide pointed out a model of the topography of Tunnel View, a popular roadside viewpoint 20 miles north of Wawona, and told a group of visitors what they might see ahead of them if it weren’t for the fire. The mountains ahead were visible, but the farthest ones were hidden by the mist.
Even beyond the perimeter of the park, thick smoke could be seen on the horizon.
“It’s definitely a new normal that everybody’s getting used to,” Jenna Boozer Yip, who lives in Oakhurst, about 18 miles south of the fire, said Sunday.
She said many, frustrated by California’s relentless fire seasons, have relocated. But she added: “The people who have stayed are comfortable knowing they have to evacuate.”
Livia Albeck-Ripka contributed reporting.
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