Wildfire Today

11:47 a.m. PDT Oct. 8, 2021

Four firefighters were injured by a falling tree Thursday afternoon on the KNP Complex of fires in Southern California. The Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks announced Thursday night that the tree struck the firefighters who were then brought to a helispot and flown to area hospitals. The injuries were serious, the Park Service said, but the personnel were all in “stable condition.” Friday morning the agency said all four had been released from the hospitals. One is an employee with CAL FIRE and three are with the California Conservation Corps.

Tuesday, October 5, the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks wrote on Facebook that hundreds of giant sequoias may have been killed in the KNP Complex of fires:

Regarding the trees, there are some groves in the park that we suspect burned at high enough intensity to result in sequoia mortality, possibly for significant numbers of trees (hundreds). However, we are currently focused on prioritization and treatment of groves that are threatened and outside the current fire footprint, as well as mopping up trees that need it. It is not safe right now, nor is it our current priority to fully assess groves that have burned. These groves will be fully assessed from the ground by resource managers when it is possible, but that will be after the fire is basically out cold and conditions allow them to get in there – likely in 2022.

On Friday morning, October 8, that October 5 statement was edited, removing the estimate of trees that may have been killed, and softening the language about assessment of giant sequoia mortality not being a priority.

We suspect that some groves in the park burned at high enough intensity to cause tree mortality. We don’t know yet the extent of the fire behavior or tree mortality. We will gain what knowledge we can with aerial reconnaissance, as smoke conditions allow. These groves will be fully assessed from the ground by resource managers when it is possible, but that will be after the fire is basically out cold and conditions allow them to get in there – likely 2022.

Dozens of media outlets reported on the “hundreds” number before it was removed.

The huge 85,952-acre fire has been divided into two zones and will be managed by two Type 1 Incident Management Teams. California Interagency Incident Management Team 2 (CIIMT2) assumed command of the North Zone Thursday at 6 pm. while the Southwest Area Incident Management Team 2 remains in command of the South Zone.

Friday morning several weather stations in the general vicinity of the KNP Complex recorded less than 0.05 inch of precipitation by 10:15 a.m. PDT. More is in the forecast during the day on Friday possibly amounting to a wetting rain of a quarter of an inch or more over the northern portions of the fire. Lesser amounts of 0.10 to 0.15 inch are likely to the south in the Mineral King and Case Mountain areas.  This is not expected to be enough to put out the fire, but it is likely to slow it down for at least several days. The forecast for Saturday and Sunday is for high temperatures in the 40s and 50s depending on the elevation, with very high humidities lowering into the 30s by Sunday. There is another chance for rain on Monday along with humidity in the 50s and 60s. Tuesday and Wednesday will be sunny with humidities of 25  to 40 percent. The wind will be generally moderate throughout this period.

All this adds up to reduced growth through Tuesday, providing opportunities for firefighters to construct direct firelines.

On the north zone Friday the primary focus will be the area where the fire crossed the Generals Highway south of Grant Grove. Thursday night a tactical firing operation from Park Ridge to Redwood Canyon secured that portion of the line. An indirect line is being constructed around Stony Creek Lodge to the Generals Highway. Increased humidity and shading of fuels by clouds will decrease fire behavior Friday and provide more opportunities to build direct line.

On the south zone, heavy equipment and crews are implementing structure protection actions around Case Mountain Grove, Silver City, and Mineral King. Fire spread south of Mineral King Road is being reduced with line construction and hose lays in place.

Evacuation ORDERS and WARNINGS are still in place.

8:03 a.m. PDT Oct. 6, 2021

On the KNP Complex of fires in Sequoia National Park in Southern California, the smoke, which has limited the use of firefighting aircraft for days or weeks, cleared by mid-morning Tuesday more than it had in recent days which allowed the use of some aviation resources both on the north and south ends of the fire. An increase in relative humidity has slowed the spread for the last two days, allowing firefighters to construct direct fire line near the fire’s edge where conditions permit.

The blaze was mapped Tuesday evening at 81,473 acres, an increase of more than 20,000 acres in the previous 48 hours.

Approximately 550 acres have burned north of Generals Highway one mile southeast of the community of Wilsonia. Tuesday evening Operations Section Chief Chad Rice said hand crews and dozers are constructing line around that large slop over, tying in to old fire lines, fuel treatments, and roads where they exist. That should be complete “in a few shifts,” Mr. Rice said.

A large number of firefighters are working in Grant Grove and Wilsonia to make them easier to defend if the fire spreads into those areas.

The incident management team has not released information about the mortality of the giant sequoias in the Redwood Mountain Grove after the fire spread rapidly through the area on October 4. It is the largest grove on Earth of the trees and contains the world’s tallest giant sequoia, 312 feet (95 meters). The huge trees with bark up to a foot thick are normally fire resistant and can live for more than 3,000 years old if climate change was not creating multi-year droughts and extremely low fuel moistures. Last year the Castle Fire, just to the south, destroyed an estimated 7,500 to 10,600 large sequoias with trunk diameters of more than four feet, which was 10 to 14 percent of all large sequoias across the tree’s natural range in the Sierra Nevada.

Near Stony Creek Lodge and Cabin Creek on the northeast side of the fire there is a 200-acre slop over across Generals Highway that firefighters are working on.

On the south side, the fire has crossed Mineral King Road in several places, which in that steep topography raises the level of difficulty in stopping the spread in that area. It has not yet crossed the East Fork of the Kaweah River, but Operations Section Chief Chad Rice said he expects it will cross to the south side. The terrain, fuels, fire behavior, and the one-lane road so far have made it unsafe for fire crews to work in some locations on the south edge of the fire, Mr. Rice said. For several hours on Tuesday a boulder the size of a car rolled down onto the road, blocking it until the boulder could be removed.

There are no reports of any residences being destroyed. Resources assigned to the fire include 38 hand crews, 111 fire engines, and 16 helicopters for a total of 1,866 personnel.

Evacuation details are available on a map and at the  Tulare County Sheriff’s Facebook Page.

Lightning started two fires on September 9, the Paradise and Colony Fires, which later merged to become the KNP Complex of fires. It is burning in the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Forest and is being managed as a full suppression fire.