Authorities in Oregon are trying to extinguish a fire that is burning in one of the world’s tallest trees near the state’s southern coast. The Doerner Fir, a coastal Douglas Fir tree over 325 feet tall and estimated to be over 450 years old, has been burning since Saturday in Coos County in Oregon’s Coast Range.

An infrared drone flight showed no active flames or smoke at the top of the tree, but it detected heat within a cavity in the tree trunk some 280 feet high, federal Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Megan Harper said.

Figuring out how to approach the tree from the side to douse the cavity with water has been a challenge, Harper said. Various options have been discussed, including building scaffolding or climbing adjacent trees for better positioning, or letting it smolder and monitoring to see if it reignites.

The Coos Forest Protective Association said helicopter bucket drops had reduced fire activity near the top of the tree. It added sprinklers were placed at the base of the tree, where containment lines were also constructed to prevent further fire spread.

The fire may impact the tree’s standing in global height rankings, Harper said. “We’ve lost 50 feet of it, just from fire and pieces falling out,” she said, noting the 50 feet were lost through the top burning. 

Dangerous heat in California

A dangerous heat wave descended on much of California and the US Southwest, with triple-digit temperatures expected along with a higher risk of wildfires.

Officials opened cooling centres this week in Los Angeles, where residents are warned to avoid strenuous outdoor activities. California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered state firefighting resources deployed in areas where blazes could ignite.

The National Weather Service issued an extreme heat warning for Southern California starting Wednes­day into the weekend. If outdoor activities can’t be avoided, forecasters say, they should be moved to early morning hours. 

Downtown Los Angeles was forecast to reach 34ºC, while valleys to the north braced for temperatures as high as 42ºC. It will be several degrees hotter in desert areas.

civil protection emergency in Spain 

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez announced his government will declare a civil protection emergency in response to widespread wildfires ravaging the country. Sanchez made the announcement during a visit to a firefighting command post in Caceres, southwest Spain, one of the worst-hit areas along with the northwestern regions of Galicia and Castilla-Leon. Calling the situation “a calamity”, Sanchez pledged government support, including compensation for those who have suffered losses from the fires.

According to the European Forest Fire Information System, more than 382,000 hectares have burned in Spain so far in 2025, with over 300,000 hectares destroyed in the past two weeks alone.

Ventina glacier melts, can only be monitored remotely

Italy’s Ventina glacier, one of the biggest in northern Lombardy, has melted so much due to climate change that geologists can no longer measure it the way they have for the past 130 years.

After this year’s hot summer, geologists discove­red the simple stakes used as benchmarks to measure the glacier’s retraction each year are now buried under rockslides and debris that have made the terrain too unsteady for future in-person visits.