Garnet fire burns into large grove of giant sequoias

Several trees are in flames as firefighters work to put out blaze covering more than 54,000 acres

- Lila Seidman

THE GARNET fire rages in the Sierra National Forest on Monday. It has burned into the McKinley grove.

A blaze raging through the Sierra National Forest in Fresno County has burned through part of a large grove of giant sequoias, setting at least a few of the rare, towering trees on fire.

The Garnet fire, at more than 54,000 acres as of Tuesday afternoon, swept through the McKinley grove sometime Sunday night or early Monday morning, according to Jay Tracy, a spokesperson for the fire.

An inversion layer — a weather phenomenon that acts like a lid on the blaze — lifted and the fire “started throwing some spots,” he said, referring to tossing embers that ignite spot fires. In this case, those spot fires were in the tops of trees.

An aerial assessment midmorning Monday showed flames in the crown of one of the giant sequoias, which can grow to more than 300 feet, said Adrienne Freeman, spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service. Later in the afternoon, she reported that several more were on fire.

Smokejumpers — wild-land firefighters with tree-climbing expertise — are being dispatched to the area.

Freeman said she’s glad the damage isn’t worse. Some people have mistakenly described the fire as a running-crown fire — one of the most destructive kinds — that shoots through the canopies of trees, she said. But it appears the blaze remained on the ground. However, there’s nothing stopping new embers from landing in the grove and wreaking havoc.

"I'm not breathing a big sigh of relief yet, just because the possibility of embers is not gone," she said.