When flames were identified in one of the largest trees in the world, the firefighters flooded the area.
Dones, planes and hand teams worked for days to tame fire, successfully preventing it from spreading through the dense forest surrounding the famous Doerner tree in the mountains of the Oregon coastal chain.
But the imposing coast Douglas-Fir remained obstinately on.
And the firefighters – at least for the moment – seem perplexed.
“There is always this place where water is simply not very affected yet,” said Megan Harper, spokesperson for the Oregon Bureau of Land Management. “Halfway on the tree, there is an area that burns a cavity in the side. … It is the area that is now still hot.”
The smoke rises from a burned segment of the Doerner tree.
(Bureau of Land Management)
The bizarre fire to a single tree has become an exchange of shooting almost a week in Coos County, Oregon, while the hot spot continues to burn at around 280 feet on the side of the arboreal giant.
“We have different conversations [going on] In the background with experts as a arborist, who can be able to help remove the rest of the fire, “said Harper.” How do you put water aside? “”
She said that the crews are parked around the tree and will remain so until the fire is extinguished. The fire initially broke out Saturday around 2 p.m.
“We were able to use helicopters with buckets … It was very successful in getting the top of the tree,” she said. The lateral cavity that still smokes has proven more difficult.
Harper said that Blaze’s initial charge had decreased about 50 feet of 50 feet from the top of the tree, which had constantly ranked among the highest in the world. Before the fire, it was often listed as the second strongest tree in the United States, following only Hyperion, a sequoia of the Gargantuan coast of 380 feet located in national and state parks.
“You prefer [Doerner] measured 325 feet high and about 11.5 feet in diameter, so it’s a large large tree, “said Harper.” We don’t know exactly how much height is lost. “”
According to what is happening in the coming days, “more height could be lost,” she said.
Harper said the cause of the fire was under investigation. Initially, officials thought that lightning was probably a culprit, but the weather data excluded this, said Harper.
“I think everyone would be super discouraged to learn that it might be caused by man,” said Harper, confirming that there is a distant path that gives hikers access to the tree. But she said that their team made no hypothesis while the investigation continues.
“The fire in the chain of the coast of Oregon is actually quite rare … So the fact that it even happened, then it was this tree – it was a very unique situation,” said Harper.
BLM landed around the Firon fire from Doerner to shell, Oregon, remains closed while the fight against fires continues.
