Emergency services in the US state of Oregon were still working to save the Doerner Fir, believed to be one of the world's oldest trees, early on Wednesday after the famed pine caught alight over the weekend.

A coastal Douglas Fir, the tree is 325 feet (99 meters) tall and considered to be at least 450 years old.

Still smoldering

Oregon Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Megan Harper said that while the fir no longer had any active flames as of Tuesday, it appeared to still be smoldering in some areas and that firefighters could still detect heat within a cavity in its trunk, some 280 feet above the ground.

Harper said the height of the heat signature made it difficult to reach, and that authorities were considering erecting scaffolding or having firefighters climb adjacent trees.

She added that they had lost a significant part of the tree, but it was not at imminent risk of burning down entirely.

"We've lost about 50 feet of it, just from fire and pieces falling out," she said, noting that the 50 feet (15 meters) were lost through the top burning. "So I don't know where it'll stand after this, but it's still a magnificent tree." 

What caused the fire?

Local news outlets reported that a lightning strike had been ruled out as the cause of the fire, but that nothing else could be said about what started it at this time.

Harper said that the state was doing everything it could to save the tree.

"There's a lot of history there, and so we don't want to lose it."

Edited by: Sean Sinico