Nearly 1,600 people have already been evacuated due to the forest tire in Yosemite Park in the US state of California, the British public broadcaster BBC reported on Monday.
The evacuations due to the Washburn Fire that broke out on July 7 occurred in the town of Wawona in the park itself and among hundreds of campers close to Wawona. The fire has doubled in size in the last 24 hours and is estimated to have destroyed more than 643 hectares.
Authorities warn that air quality has reached unhealthy levels in large parts of the park. There is a lot of smoke and soot from the fire.
Firefighters are working in difficult areas to save the redwoods and none of those giant trees has been lost so far. Some of those trees are more than three thousand years old. The largest is 83 meters high and has a circumference of eleven meters. The cause of the fire is not yet known.