Existing comment:
A Fiery Hand Shapes the Land:
In fall 1955, McGee fire burned over 17,500 acres between Miramonte and the Kings River. Sparked by an escaped burn, McGee was a dramatic example of extreme fire behavior in the Sierra Nevada ecosystem.
Natural fires were common and not very intense so they burned ground vegetation and debris, but left the trees. McGee left ashes and charred sticks where trees once stood.
Sierran plant species play an important role in fire ecology. Bushes have oily leaves and shaggy bark to fuel fires so they burn in any fire, large or small. Trees here are adapted to fire in a different way. Giant sequoia bark can be two feet thick and pine bark several inches thick, so fire rarely harms the living wood.
What Happened:
After this area was logged in the late 1800s, few trees remained in this altered ecosystem where poor quality wood and branches were left to rot. Years of suppressing all fire here had disrupted the fire cycle. Dense brush grew under the trees forming fuel ladders.
Fifty years later, the dry September wind carried embers from a prescribed burn into a tinderbox of old brush and scraggly trees. Fuel ladders allowed the McGee Fire to climb from the ground through the brush and branches into the treetops. |