Thread by @latimes

Crews continue to battle the 3,221-acre Washburn fire in #Yosemite National Park.

But officials were growing more confident that the #MariposaGrove of ancient #sequoias would survive the blaze.

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Nearly 700 firefighters were battling the blaze from the air and the ground, including setting backfires, laying hand lines and using bulldozers to create barriers, officials said.

The fire was 22% contained Tuesday morning.

latimes.com/california/sto…

For days, all eyes had been on two high-priority areas threatened by the creeping flames: the community of Wawona, which remains under mandatory evacuation orders, and the Mariposa Grove, home to more than 500 mature sequoias.

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While it was too soon to officially declare the grove safe, there are early indications that most trees will survive.

A younger tree, about 200 years old, may have been lost, but its fate won’t be clear for some time.

latimes.com/california/sto…

“The nervousness and the threat level of the Mariposa Grove has dropped way down,” Forest Service spokesman Stanley Bercovitz said. “Fire did go through the lower portion of the grove, but it was low- and medium-intensity and the kind of fire you like.”

latimes.com/california/sto…

But while the Washburn fire has the potential to be beneficial for the grove if current conditions hold, that doesn’t mean crews can relax.

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