As blazes rage across California’s world-famous Sequoia National Park, firefighters are putting fire-resistant blankets over old trees. Officials are concerned that the fires might spread and reach the Giant Forest, a grove of some of the world’s largest trees.

There are 2,000 sequoias in the forest, including the 275ft (83m) General Sherman, the world’s largest tree by volume and around 2,500 years old.

To put out the fires, more than 350 firefighters have been dispatched, along with helicopters and water-dropping planes. To preserve the trees, they covered them with aluminum foil, including General Sherman.

“It’s a very significant area for many, many people, so a lot of special effort is going into protecting this grove,” Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks officials said.

The Paradise and Colony wildfires, believed to have been naturally caused by lightning, have been spreading through steep shrubland in the Sierra Nevada.

The fight against the 11.5-square-mile (30-square-kilometer) Paradise Fire and the 3-square-mile (8-square-kilometer) Colony Fire, which was closest to the grove, was taken over by a national interagency fire management team. In that region, operations were carried out to burn grass and other fuel sources that may have fed the fires.

The park was forced to evacuate this week due to the flames, and portions of Three Rivers beyond the main entrance were still evacuated on Thursday. Between the fire and the neighborhood, heavy equipment has been used to dig ditches in an attempt to redirect the blaze.

This year, more than 7,400 wildfires have raged across the state, burning over 2.2 million acres. They’ve been propelled by rising temperatures and severe drought. Hot, dry weather is more likely to cause wildfires as a result of climate change.