LONGWOOD, Fla. - 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 (36-meter) bald cypress tree named "The Senator" to catch fire early Monday. Mike Martin of the state Division of Forestry tells the Orlando Sentinel that arson may be to blame.
Seminole County Fire Rescue spokesman Steve Wright tells the Orlando Sentinel newspaper that the tree burned for several hours from the inside out.
Firefighters arrived around 5:50 a.m. and pulled more than 800 feet (240 metres) of hose through the woods to the fire. Wright says a 20-foot (6-meter) 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 (50 metres) before a 1925 hurricane lopped off its top.
