-September 18,2021-How do you fight climate change that is out of control? How about a little aluminum wrap?
Pictured left- wrapping the General Sherman Tree this week.
San Diego-based Firezat’s protective products are being put to good use this week.The fire resistant tin-foil looking wrap is being used to protect some of the Giant Sequoias including the famous 275 ft General Sherman tree threatened by the KNP Complex fires above Visalia.
Last year’s protection for G.W Bush Tree
It is also being used to cover buildings in the way of the wildfire like the Giant Forest Museum and the famed Sequoia Park entrance sign near Three Rivers -all at risk with this wind swept fire.
As of the morning of Sept 17, the two lightning-caused fires stand at 9300 acres. Winds of 15 to 25 mph with gusts to 40 mph continue to plague efforts although a cooling late this week may help. Almost 500 personnel are fighting the blazes.As of the last report, the two fires,The Colony Fire and Paradise Fire in Sequoia National Park are zero percent contained.
For the second year in a row, wildfire is threatening to wipe out more of the iconic Sequoia trees in Tulare County’s backyard – the region’s claim to fame and the home of the namesake national park.
In last years Castle Fire, the Firezat company’s fire resistant product was used to wrap the base of threatened Sequoia trees against at least short periods of intense flames -and it worked.
In September 2020, firefighters wrapped the base of the G.W. Bush Sequoia Tree (pictured) in the Freeman Creek Grove above Porterville- Springville and also completely wrapped historic structures in the path of the fire, protecting both the trees and structures.
Even this week, the southern Sequoia National Forest – also home to number of Big Tree groves, is being overrun by the Windy Fire – burning out of control in the upper Tule watershed as is the KNP fires in the Kaweah River watershed.The little forest town of Johnsondale is big evacuated.
Used throughout the West for years, firefighters wrapped the aluminum blankets on homes near Lake Tahoe a few weeks ago that ended up surviving while other homes nearby were destroyed.
It is hoped that if the fire reaches the Giant Forest -home to 2000 “Big Trees” – years of purposeful prescribed burns in the past have cleared underbrush that would otherwise promote the spread of the flames. Unfortunately, the fires are burning uphill in steep terrain toward Giant Forest, made famous by John Muir himeself.
The Colony Fire, one of two burning in Sequoia National Park, was expected to reach the Giant Forest grove yesterday. It comes after a wildfire killed as many as 10,000 sequoia trees last year.
Giant Sequoias, some thousands of years old live only in isolated pockets of the Sierra and nowhere else on earth.The largest number of groves are in Tulare County’s Sierra range-mostly at 5000 to 6500 ft.
Firezat’s company website says their product -they call it a blanket – shown to block heat- has been investigated experimentally in the laboratory and prescribed wildfires. Two-layer thin fabric assemblies blocked up to 92% of the convective heat and up to 96% of the radiation (with an aluminized surface).
Not just trees and structures but firefighters themselves use the product to save themselves when they cannot otherwise escape.