[Helmut10001]

I am no expert or anything, just want to mention that Sequoias need fire to grow. Their seeds usually survive fire and afterwards, new growth is triggered.

This does not mean that human-made fires are good. At this point, any additional release of CO2 is pretty bad.

[rob74]

Yes, but they are adapted to relatively frequent but lower intensity fires. As the article says, for the last century there was a policy of fire suppression, so the "undergrowth" (and from the perspective of a Sequoia, pretty much everything else is undergrowth) is much more dense than it usually was. So if a fire gets out of control, it may get more intense than the Sequoias are adapted to.

[okareaman]

Seems like all Californians know this fact. That's why it's so shocking that they perished in the fire.

[Helmut10001]

Yes, absolutely.. loosing these giants is really sad.

Just motivated by the fact that there are people other than Californians on HN.

[wolverine876]

The article addresses that. This fire killed the trees.

[thaumasiotes]

Adult trees also often survive fire; you can walk into any number of hollow, burned-out, still living trees.