CA Fires Latest: 4 Famous Giant Trees Saved; 11 Major Fires Burn

CALIFORNIA — As wildfires continued to swell across the Golden State, four famous giant sequoias, aptly named "The Four Guardsmen," were unscathed by a blaze that had reached the edge of Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park, officials said.

Fire agencies were able to save the iconic trees from the approaching KNP Complex fire by clearing out nearby vegetation and wrapping the base of the trees in fire-resistant material. That fire had burned more than 23,743 acres in sequoia country as of Monday morning.

"Generally fires can be destructive however low-intensity fires can be beneficial to giant sequoia trees. A damage assessment will be done in these groves when it is safe to do so," a Sequoia National Forest statement said Sunday.

The KNP Complex originated from two lightning-sparked fires that eventually merged on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. The complex fire spurred the evacuation of the park last week and on Sunday much of Kings Canyon National Park. Those who were visiting areas that were open were warned of poor air quality as smoke billowed from the nearby fire. The blaze was zero percent contained as of Monday.

Across California, more than 10,000 firefighters continued to battle 11 major fires and two extended attack wildfires. On Sunday, firefighters quickly contained at least 14 new fires, Cal Fire reported.

A Red Flag Warning was in effect for much of Northern California into Tuesday amid gusty winds and dry conditions for swaths of the Sacramento Valley and surrounding foothill and mountain terrain. The North Bay mountains and East Bay hills were also under a Red Flag Warning.

Warm and dry weather was expected to befall much of Northern California on Monday.

In Southern California, temperatures were expected to warm slightly but remain around seasonal levels on Monday. On Tuesday, temperatures were expected to rise 5 to 15 degrees above normal and remain elevated until at least Wednesday. East winds of 10 to 20 mph with gusts up to mph were expected to sweep through the mountains, passes and below the canyons of the Southland Monday morning through Tuesday morning — keeping fire agencies on high alert.

There were no weather warnings affecting the Southland on Monday, but forecasters said there would be weak Santa Ana winds and significant warming — elevating the risk of wildfires.

Historic drought tied to climate change is making wildfires harder to fight. It has killed millions of trees in California alone. Scientists say climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

Some 7,566 wildfires in California this year have damaged or destroyed more than 3,000 homes and other buildings and torched well over 2.3 million acres since the beginning of the year. In comparison, to the same time last year, there were 8,278 wildfires, which burned more than 3.6 million acres.

See Cal Fire's chart of all major fires burning across the Golden State on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.