The weather is expected to be warmer during the week. But fire scars from previous fires about 1 to 3 miles from the perimeter of the Washburn Fire will help slow it down, officials said. Amid the fire’s expansion, park officials urged people at Yosemite’s Wawona Campground and the community to evacuate. Mariposa Grove is home to more than 500 giant sequoia trees, which can reach heights of over 250 feet. And while the grove was established in 1857, the trees have been around long before that, with some believed to be over 2,000 years old. Firefighters have placed a sprinkler system around the Grizzly Giant, a famed Sequoia in Mariposa Grove, to protect it from the flames. Yosemite is one of the most popular national parks in the US, attracting more than 3.3 million people in 2021. It encompasses nearly 1,200 square miles in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in eastern California. Meanwhile, California crews are also battling the Electra fire, which has burned more than 4,400 acres in Amador and Calaveras counties, also in the Sierra Nevada, according to Cal Fire. The fire prompted the state’s first nighttime water-dropping operation by helicopter Wednesday, when about 12,000 gallons of water were dumped on the flames, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Isaac Sanchez told CNN. “The helicopter was brought in to help cool down and contain a shooting operation that had taken place earlier in the afternoon,” Sanchez said. “As assigned to this operation, the helicopter identified additional areas where the fire had moved above containment lines and was able to assist in fully extinguishing and containing them.” The western US has been ravaged by wildfires in recent years, exacerbated by drought conditions linked to climate change. In California alone, more than 2.5 million acres were destroyed in nearly 9,000 wildfires last year, according to Cal Fire. Last month, officials in Southern California said they were bracing for another difficult summer and fall amid a shortage of fire crews and increased workloads. The threat is not limited to California. Robert Garcia, the US fire chief for the Angeles National Forest, said the summer months are off to a “worrisome” start. Firefighting resources have been mobilized since March in Arizona and New Mexico, where the Black Fire became the state’s second-largest wildfire on record. “Southern California typically has a wildfire season historically in late June and then in the fall,” Garcia told CNN last month. “But we’re seeing activity now year-round.” CNN’s Stephanie Elam, Melissa Alonso and Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
