Blaze threaten's US' giant Sequoia trees
A wind-driven fire grew to more than 15,000 acres today, forcing more than 1,000 people to flee an area near California’s Sequoia National Park and threatening towering trees along the Trail of 100 Giants.
The fire was less than two miles from the Giant Sequoia National Monument, which preserves about half of the 70 remaining groves of the giant trees.
About 200 homes were threatened.
‘‘I was scared. I’ve never seen it so close, it was coming so fast,’’ said Simone Wallace, who fled her home in Johnsondale.
‘‘It’s got good potential behind it to grow to be a massive wildfire,’’ said Denise Alonzo, a Sequoia National Forest spokeswoman. .
The blaze did not appear to threaten the General Sherman tree, which at 275 feet tall and 30 feet across at its base is the nation’s largest tree and the world’s largest living thing based on volume.
The Trail of 100 Giants in the national monument includes some of the largest and oldest trees on earth. Individual sequoias can live more than 3,200 years.
The fire began on Sunday afternoon in a region that hasn’t had rain since spring.
