By Claire Rush Associated Press424 words
Portland, Ore. (AP) – The authorities in Oregon try to extinguish a fire that burns in one of the highest trees in the world on the south coast of the state.
The Doerner Fir, a Douglas fir from coasts, which is over 99 meters tall and over 450 years old, has been burning in the Coos County in Oregon's coastal area since Saturday. An infrared drone flight on Tuesday did not show any active flames or smoke at the top of the tree, but it recognized warmth within a cavity in the tree trunk with a height of 280 feet, said Megan Harper, spokesman for the Federal Office for Land Management.
It was a challenge to find out how to approach the tree from the side to check the cavity with water, said Harper. Various options were discussed, including the construction of scaffolding or climbing adjacent trees to achieve better positioning, or the smoldering agent and monitoring to determine whether it is repeated.
The crews remained on site on Tuesday and a helicopter was in standby in the event of the required water drops, added.
The Coos Forest Protective Association said on Monday that helicopter drops would have reduced fire activity near the top of the tree. It also added that sprinklers were placed at the base of the tree, where contamination lines were also built to prevent further fire spread.
The fire can affect the stream of the tree in a global ranking of height, said Harper.
“We lost about 50 feet of it, just out of fire and pieces that fall out,” she said, noticing that the 50 foot (15 meters) was lost through the upper burn. “So I don't know where it will be after it, but it's still a great tree.”
The investigators of the Bureau of Land Management excluded Lightning as the cause of the fire based on weather data, the Federal Authority announced on Tuesday evening. It is the only tree in the immediate vicinity and the cause of the fire is still being examined.
According to Harper, the tree is currently not at risk of completely burning down.
“At the moment this is no danger,” she said. “The tree is so large that it has so much mass that it would take a while for it to burn all the way through the tree.”
In the meantime, those who are involved in the fire fighting efforts want everything possible to save the historic tree, said Harper.
“I think people really love it,” she said over the tree. “There is a lot of history there, and that's why we don't want to lose it.”