On, or about May 6, 2013, a small fire ignited in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. An article was written about it by Adam Spencer, for the Daily Triplicate. Since news source links online frequently go defunct, here are various excerpts from the article. The image below is not from that fire, but from another small fire in the same park, within the past few years.

“The old-growth redwood trees in Jedediah Smith State Park that caught fire from lightning earlier this week will be able to remain standing after firefighters extinguished the flames Tuesday evening.

Using 3,000-gallon-bucket water drops by helicopter and about 50 firefighters, Calfire crews were able to knock down flames on a 10-foot-diameter old-growth dead snag on Monday, but a 10-foot-diameter green, living tree continued to burn from Monday to Tuesday, officials said.”

…

“The helicopter water drops were successful at extinguishing flames near the top of the 200-foot-plus-tall old-growth, but fires about 70 feet up in a hollow part of the tree were trickier.”

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“Seventy feet high in the air there was a pocket of fire that was giving us problems,” said  Tim DeVos, Calfire battalion chief for the Humboldt-Del Norte Unit.

Calfire crews hauled fire hose three-quarters of a mile into the park from the northern end of Parkway Drive in Crescent City. ”

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“Calfire officials initially had doubts about spraying water through almost a mile of fire hose and then 70 feet into the air, DeVos said, but through a trial-and-error process using various sizes of hoses and connections, crews were able to hit the high flames.”

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“The fire in the northeastern section of Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, about three quarters of a mile southeast of the intersection of Route 199 and Parkway Drive, was dubbed the “Kings Fire” and was fought by two Calfire handcrews (15 firefighters each), two engine crews (three firefighters each), and two helicopters. Crescent Fire Protection District provided one water tender on Tuesday.”

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““The main objective was to leave those old-growth standing and we were able to accomplish that,” DeVos said.”

From what I know of the Crescent City area, and Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, I think the “northeast” written in the article is actually the northwest part of the park. At least that’s the side of the park closest to Parkway Drive from where the water was acquired.

Those familiar with old growth coast redwoods, will understand how single trees could remain burning for days.

Redwoods Fire Log