MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Fire in Florida destroys one of the world’s oldest cypresses: 3.500 years

The smouldering trunk of “The Senator”

The cause of an early morning fire in Florida State Seminole County that destroyed one of the world's oldest cypress trees, 3.500 years, remained a mystery, but a state forestry investigator is convinced it was not the work of an arsonist.

The investigator has listed the cause of the fire as “undetermined,” but has ruled out arson as the cause, said Cliff Frazier, a spokesman for the forestry agency. However, a fire official on the scene suggested a lightning strike may have caused the blaze

The tree, which sprouted some 3,500 years ago, was officially named “The Senator,” but to most in central Florida it was simply called “The Big Tree.” It was one of the area's leading tourist attractions before the arrival of the region's theme parks.

Fire-fighters responded to the park about 5: 50 a.m. and had to run more than 243 metres of hoses through the woods to reach the fire. At about 7: 45 a.m. a six-metre section of the top of the tree fell off, Seminole County Fire Rescue spokesman Steve Wright said. By 8: 15 a.m. more of the tree had collapsed.

“It's a nightmare,” he said. Later, a sheriff helicopter was used to dump water on the smouldering tree.

The tree, which was hollow, burned for several hours from the inside out - almost like a chimney, Wright said.

Arson was initially suspected but investigators could find nothing to support the theory.

The Senator was named after the man who donated what is now Big Tree Park to the county, Moses Oscar Overstreet, a state senator from 1920 to 1925.

The tree was estimated to be 50 m tall before a hurricane took off the top in 1925, according to research conducted by county historians.

The American Forestry Association bored a small hole in The Senator in 1946 for a core sample that gave the tree an estimated age of 3,500 years.