Crews are working to put out an Oregon fire that is burning one of the tallest trees in the world. Megan Harper of the Bureau of Land Management joins CBS News to discuss efforts to put out the fire.

Oregon

Firefighters in southern Oregon are working to extinguish a fire burning inside a Douglas fir tree that is over 450 years old and stands more than 325 feet tall. The fire, located high within the trunk, has been partially contained with ground crews and helicopter water drops, but hotspots remain in the middle section of the tree, prompting the involvement of arborists and tree climbers.

Officials report that the majority of the tree remains structurally sound, and there is no evidence the fire is spreading to other trees or the surrounding forest. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but authorities are optimistic that the tree will survive, although it may lose some of its height.

Fire burning in one of the tallest trees in the world

Now we head to the southern coast of Oregon where crews are working to put out a fire that's burning and one of the tallest trees in the world. Now this tree is more than 450 years old and it stands at over 325 feet tall. Now to put that into perspective, this is amazing. The tree is actually taller than the Statue of Liberty. Let's bring in Megan Harper, the public information officer with the Bureau of Land Management. Megan, great to see you. This tree is just massive. Can you walk us through what crews are doing right now to extinguish this fire? I mean, it sounds sort of obvious. I mean, why don't they just fly a helicopter over it to put it out, right? Yeah, no, it's it's hard to imagine what it's like to fight a fire in a single tree, especially when the fire is, you know, 250 to 280 feet off the ground. Crews have successfully stopped the fire on the ground using hoses and sprinkler systems. Firefighters have been able to extinguish the fire at the very top of the tree using helicopter bucket drops of water. It's just what's proving a little bit of a challenge is that middle piece where there's some still bark, some interior portions of the tree that are showing some heat and smoke. And so we're actually got in contact with some arborists and some master tree climbers who were going to do their darndest to actually climb the tree and see if we can get some water in some of those hot spots. Yeah, the footage is just fascinating because the fire is actually inside the tree. It's not like there's flames on the outside on the branches. It's inside the actual trunk and we know it's been burning since Saturday. So what kind of damage have we seen so far? You know the most amazing characteristics of these large old Douglas fir trees is they're incredibly sturdy. There's just so much wood material inside them that it would take a long time for a fire to burn completely through it. So what foresters have seen is some of that fire has been on the inside of the tree along the bark along the outside of the trunk, but the majority of the tree is actually structurally sound and right now we're pretty confident that the tree will survive that. That's incredible. I want to get to that in a minute, but do we know what caused this fire? Are other trees at risk of this? Spreading so no, so the the fire is of course under investigation at something both our foresters and law enforcement and firefighters take a look at. They haven't determined a cause yet, but the great news is is right now there's no evidence that the fire is spreading right now. There's no danger to any other trees nearby or the rest of the forest. Like I said, there's a crew staffing that this tree pretty much 24 seven and are able to quickly respond if if any fire starts to show or is at risk of spreading again. And as you mentioned before, you're pretty confident that when this fire is finally out, the tree is actually going to survive. Yes, I I think folks are are slightly relieved and confident that the tree will still be standing. It might not be as tall or we know it's not going to be quite as tall as it was. It may not be the record holder anymore, but it's looking like it'll still be a beautiful tree. It'll survive. Will continue to grow then even after the fire is out. You know these trees once they reach, you know, an age like 450. They're not really growing so much anymore. They actually start a slow dying process where there's decay, and that's actually what is burning is some of that decay that rotten wood I see so it's not going to regenerate necessarily and grow back where it once was, but it will not survive. No, not necessarily. Alright, Megan Harper. Thank you so much. Thank you.

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