California wildfires close Sequoia national park and prompt evacuations

A complex of lightning-sparked wildfires burning in California’s Sierra Nevada has exploded in size, prompting evacuations and the shutdown of Sequoia national park, where the fire is burning close to the park’s namesake trees.

The KNP Complex fire, composed of the Paradise and Colony fires, took hold in the dense, mountainous vegetation on 9 September. By Wednesday morning, the blaze had scorched more than 7,000 acres.

Mandatory evacuations are in effect across Sequoia national park and into the Three Rivers area, and the fire continues to threaten the ancient groves of giant trees growing on the western slope of the mountain range.

Related: ‘Mind-blowing’: tenth of world’s giant sequoias may have been destroyed by a single fire

Roughly 350 personnel are now battling the blaze and additional reinforcements are on their way, including a specialized management team that will assume control of the complex by Thursday morning. But firefighting efforts are being complicated by smoke, which clouds visibility for aerial drops, and by the fact that the flames are burning in steep and rugged terrain, diminishing access on the ground.

All facilities in Sequoia have been closed and wilderness trailhead permits have been canceled. Kings Canyon national park, to the north of Sequoia, remained open.

“As a community we are going to be tested,” said Clay Jordan, superintendent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon national park, during a community meeting Tuesday night, noting that it will probably get worse before it gets better.