Fire officials watching weather as Paradise and Colony wildfires merge into one, reaching Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park

Fire crews are watching the weather in California, as a massive wildfire reaches the edges of the Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park, home to around 2,000 giant sequoias — including General Sherman, the world’s largest tree.

On Friday, two wildfires that have burned for a week in the area merged into one, reaching the edge of a historic grove of giant sequoia trees.

“We no longer have a Paradise Fire and a Colony Fire. We now have one fire that grew together yesterday,” John Wallace, an operations chief with the incident command team in charge of battling the blaze, said Saturday morning, during a live-streamed update on the KNP Complex Fire.

In this picture released by the National Park Service on September 17, 2021, wildland firefighters apply structure wrap to giant sequoias on the KNP Complex fire in the Sequoia National Park, California. - Firefighters battling to protect the world's biggest tree from wildfires ravaging the parched United States said on September 17 they are optimistic it can be saved. Flames are creeping closer to the majestic General Sherman and other giant sequoias, as man-made climate change worsens California's fearsome fire season. (HANDOUT/)

“The fire made a really good push,” Wallace said, adding that it grew about 6,000 acres on Friday.

Earlier this week firefighters wrapped the base of the General Sherman Tree in fire-resistant aluminum, fire spokeswoman Rebecca Paterson said, according to The Associated Press. That’s the type of aluminum used in wildland firefighter emergency shelters and to protect historic wooden structures.

According to the National Park Service, the General Sherman Tree is the world’s largest tree measured by volume. It stands 275 feet tall, and it has a circumference of 103 feet at ground level.

A contractor walks past giant sequoia trees among smoke-filled skies in the "Lost Grove" along Generals Highway north of Red Fir during a media tour of the KNP Complex fire in the Sequoia National Park in California. (PATRICK T. FALLON/)

On Saturday, the National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for the area, which means that “critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now, or will shortly.”

“A low-pressure system will bring gusty winds along with low relative humidities to areas with already dry fuels Saturday through Sunday increasing fire weather risks,” from Saturday afternoon until Sunday evening, the NWS said.

However, fire officials are not expecting the kinds of explosive wind-driven growth that have turned Sierra Nevada blazes into monster fires that devoured hundreds of homes.

“There isn’t a lot of extreme weather predicted for the next few days, which is good news, there’s not a lot of big wind shifts predicted. However, there’s also no rain predicted,” Paterson told the AP.

“So we’re anticipating that the fires are going to continue to grow. Hopefully, they’re not going to grow too fast,” she added.

As of Saturday afternoon, the KNP Complex had grown to 17,857 acres.