Historic tree catches fire in central Florida park
Associated Press – 2 hrs 53 mins ago, LONGWOOD, Fla. (AP) — Firefighters say one of the world's oldest cypress trees has caught fire and collapsed in central Florida.
It's unknown what caused a 118-foot-tall bald cypress tree named "The Senator" to catch fire early Monday.
Seminole County Fire Rescue spokesman Steve Wright tells the Orlando Sentinel the tree burned for several from the inside out.
Firefighters arrived around 5:50 a.m. and pulled more than 800 feet of hose through the woods to the fire. Wright says a 20-foot section of the tree fell off around 7:45 a.m., and the tree collapsed a half-hour later.
According to the county's parks and preservation department, "The Senator" was roughly 3,500 years old.
Parks officials say the tree reached a height of 165 feet before a 1925 hurricane lopped off its top.
http://static.cfnews13.com/newsvideo/cfn/BigTreeFire0116.flv&vtitle=%27Th e"> http://www.cfnews13.com/video?clip=http://static.cfnews13.com/newsvideo/cfn/BigTreeFire0116.flv&vtitle ='The Senator' on fire
Now that is a d**n shame. That one was one cool tree. I hate to see something like that go. Someone had to of started that fire, we haven't had in lightining in a long time.
Not sure, they are saying maybe internal combustion due to it being so hollowed out and full of so much debris or a lightning strike since the fire started on the inside. I sure hope it wasn't arson!
I would almost guarantee you its internal combustion. For the same reason that lumber mills have to keep irrigation going all the time on stacked up lumber and cut trees. With no rain in the last few months, it sounds completely plausible
It hasn't internally combusted in 3500 years, I vote arson.
