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Portland, Ore. — Authorities successful Oregon are trying to extinguish a occurrence burning successful 1 of the world's tallest trees, adjacent the state's confederate coast.
The Doerner Fir, a coastal Douglas Fir histrion implicit 325 feet gangly and estimated to beryllium implicit 450 years old, has been burning since Saturday successful Coos County successful Oregon's Coast Range. An infrared drone formation connected Tuesday showed nary progressive flames oregon fume astatine the apical of the tree, but it detected vigor wrong a cavity successful the tree's trunk immoderate 280 feet up, national Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Megan Harper said.
CBS Coos Bay, Oregon affiliate KCBY-TV says the histrion has a diameter of 11.5 feet. The upwind successful the vicinity has been trending hotter and drier this week, the presumption says.
Figuring retired however to attack the histrion from the broadside to douse the cavity with h2o has been a challenge, Harper said. Various options person been discussed, including gathering scaffolding oregon climbing adjacent trees for amended positioning, oregon letting it smolder and monitoring to spot if it reignites.
Crews remained on-site Tuesday and a chopper was connected standby successful lawsuit h2o drops are needed, she added.
The Coos Forest Protective Association said Monday that chopper bucket drops had reduced occurrence enactment adjacent the apical of the tree. It added that sprinklers were placed astatine the basal of the tree, wherever containment lines were besides constructed to forestall further occurrence spread.
A conception of the monolithic Doerner Fir successful confederate Oregon that had flames wrong it, connected August 19, 2025
Coos Forest Protective Association Facebook page
The Coos Bay District issued an exigency closure of nationalist lands for the country surrounding occurrence suppression activities, KCBY reported.
The occurrence whitethorn interaction the tree's lasting successful planetary tallness rankings, Harper said.
"We've mislaid astir 50 feet of it, conscionable from occurrence and pieces falling out," she said, noting that the 50 feet were mislaid done the apical burning. "So I don't cognize wherever it'll basal aft this, but it's inactive a magnificent tree."
Investigators with the Bureau of Land Management person ruled retired lightning arsenic a origin of the occurrence based connected upwind data, the national bureau said Tuesday evening. It's the lone histrion connected occurrence successful the contiguous vicinity, and the fire's origin is inactive nether investigation.
For now, the histrion isn't astatine hazard of afloat burning down, according to Harper.
"Right now, that is not a danger," she said. "The histrion is truthful big, it's got truthful overmuch wide that it would instrumentality a portion for it to pain each the mode done the tree."
Meanwhile, those progressive successful the firefighting efforts privation to bash everything imaginable to prevention the historical tree, Harper said.
"I deliberation radical truly emotion it," she said of the tree. "There's a batch of past there, and truthful we don't privation to suffer it."
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