The biggest tree in the world is wrapped in a fireproof blanket to protect it from a nearby wildfire.

The General Sherman tree, a giant sequoia in California’s Sequoia National Park and the largest tree by volume, is no stranger to fire: In its long life, the 275-foot-tall, 2,200-year-old tree has likely lived through well over 100 burns, which used to snake along the forest floor in the region every 15 years or so. The species even needs that fire to pop open its cones and release seeds that sprout its next generations.

But the fires making their way through the southern Sierra Nevada this September are not the same as burns in the past. Because of decades