One of the world’s oldest cypress trees, estimated to be 3,500 years old, burned Monday in a wildfire in Seminole County, Florida. A spokesperson for Seminole County Fire Rescue said investigators determined that a brush fire started nearby and spread to the tree which was known as “The Senator”. The 165-foot-tall tree lost its top in a hurricane in the mid -1920’s, leaving the tree at 118 feet. Another portion of the top and several branches broke off during the fire, forcing firefighters to back off. Soon after that the tree collapsed, leaving about 20 to 25 feet remaining.
A video report can be found HERE.
South Dakota is planting former Gov. Janklow today: any send-off words, Mr. Gabbert?
Off-topic but I wondered if you saw this:
http://grist.org/climate-change/2012-01-05-senate-staffers-find-the-lighter-side-of-devastating-wildfires/
Larry, I’ve been contemplating an article about the passing of former South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow…. waiting for the dust to settle. For those that don’t know, he was very, very hands-on and proactive in fire suppression and fire management. I had a number of direct encounters with him, resulting in a variety of outcomes.
In regards to the link to the office pool about the number of fires and air tanker crashes, we covered that here and here: