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LONGWOOD, FLA. — Investigators are ruling out arson after one of the world’s oldest cypress trees caught fire and collapsed in central Florida.
Division of Forestry spokesman Cliff Frazier told the Orlando Sentinel that the fire was not the work of an arsonist. The exact cause has not been determined.
Seminole County Fire Rescue spokesman Steve Wright said the 118-foot-tall bald cypress tree, named The Senator, burned for several hours early Monday. Wright said a 20-foot section of the top fell first and then the rest of the tree collapsed.
The county parks department says ring samples showed the tree was roughly 3,500 years old.
The tree was named for a 1920s state senator who donated what is now Big Tree Park to the county.
