Large trees fueled massive Calif. wildfire that killed giant sequoias

Remains of decades-old, large-diameter trees were the main driver of a 2021 wildfire in California’s Sierra Nevada, a recent analysis suggests.

The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, analyzed the sources of wildfire smoke during the KNP Complex Fire, which burned for more than three months in 2021, decimating nearly 90,000 acres of national parks land and destroying thousands of giant sequoia trees.