The Senator: Sara Barnes Charged With Setting Fire That Destroyed 3,500-Year-Old Florida Cypress Tree

A 26-year-old Orlando-area woman has been charged with setting the January fire that burned and destroyed 'The Senator', one of the world's oldest pond cypress trees and a beloved local attraction.

Investigators said tips to a crime hotline led them to Sara Barnes, who allegedly took photos of the fire she started inside the popular 118-foot-high hollow tree and uploaded them to her laptop, reports WKMG. According to WESH, Barnes told police she regularly visited the spot in Longwood's Big Tree Park to use drugs, and lit a fire the night of January 16 in order to see better.

"She did not call the Fire Department or 911 to report the fire," Florida Department of Agriculture spokesman Sterling Ivey told the Orlando Sentinel. "It's a great fuel source. Unfortunately."

The fire, which burned the tree from the inside out for several hours, caused a 20-foot section of the mighty bald cypress to fall from the top before the rest of the tree collapsed. Investigators initially ruled out arson and theorized that a lightning strike may have caused the fire.

Not only was Barnes charged with malicious burning of land, a third-degree felony, but police found drugs in her home while executing a search warrant. She now faces additional charges of possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia.

While Barnes sits in Seminole County jail on $5,950 total bond, WESH reports members of the public have taken their anger over The Senator's demise to her Facebook page:

"Burn in hell, you horror of a human," one person told Barnes, while another wrote, "I hope you get some 'jail house justice' in Seminole County Jail."

The tree, which was a whopping 18 feet wide, was named for a state senator in the 1920s who donated the land that is now Big Tree Park. Former President Calvin Coolidge commemorated the tree with a plaque in 1929.

Orlando resident Jillian McClung said she was deeply saddened over the loss of a piece of history: "Very few things stood the test of time the way the Senator had," she said. "It was truly a breathtaking local treasure, and it is disheartening to know someone has taken that away from future generations."

View images of The Senator below:

Comments

[Carla Rae H]

07:27 AM on 03/05/2012

I'm not condoning burning down this tree, but I have to laugh at all the people getting so bent out of shape over a TREE. lol It's a TREE, people. We have billions of them. Trees outnumber humans exponentially. Why don't you focus your anger on something that actually matters?

[John F Meacham III]

07:38 AM on 03/05/2012

Unfortunately we don't have trees that date back to the old testament. This was a state park not to far from where I use to live. By the way, the laws are not put there to pick and choose from. Since you do not know this, destroying live trees in a national forest is illegal.Why dont we look the other way when another arsonist sets fire to your house.

[Carla Rae H]

01:12 AM on 03/06/2012

I wasn't aware an arsonist had already set fire to my house. Well, you really showed me! I mean, really... How could I possibly be qualified to give any sort of personal opinion at all if I had to have a complete stranger from the Internet inform me that not only has my house been prey to an arsonist, but it is scheduled to be burned yet again?!

Alternately, I have considered that it is possible you simply do not speak English and Google Translator failed to provide you with the proper syntax in the translation for whatever thoughts in you had in the language you provided.

The last theory I can come up with to excuse your syntax is that you are an 'artiste'. If that is true, everyone knows that no rules apply to you so your audience is left to interpret your 'art' at will. I interpret it as.... BS. :o)

[AbsoluteTruthiness]

11:12 AM on 03/05/2012

And it's people like you who are the reason we have global warming and rising oceans, and the demise of the Arctic ice. Thanks to those like you we have overpopulation on this planet. I can hear you now "Wait, it's ONLY ONE SUV. What's it going to hurt? " Or "Hey, I just want my baby and what will that hurt?"

[Carla Rae H]

01:03 AM on 03/06/2012

Yeah yeah yeah... Blah blah blah... I don't know why I am even bothering to help you here, because you are obviously too convinced you know everything to be bothered to find out the truth about anything. And I know you won't bother to watch the video I will provide to get you started on the path to truth. But I am going to provide it anyway. At least then you can never claim no one tried to educate you. Knowledge is much better than arrogance. You should try it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5576670191369613647&fb_source=message

[alal66]

06:42 AM on 03/05/2012

The tree will forgive her.

[ekstatik]

07:03 PM on 03/25/2012

No it won't. It's dead.

[alal66]

08:52 PM on 03/25/2012

dead is wood, tree lives forever...

[centauro962]

05:19 AM on 03/05/2012

Did she convince Smokey the Bear to sit down and smoke with her that crap?

[Rob Chapman]

05:16 AM on 03/05/2012

That tree was a piece of history. It was growing when Egypt was at it's height. It was growing when the Roman Empire rose AND fell. It was growing during the Dark Ages & The Renaissance to the modern age. And one careless, thoughtless drugged out piece of you know what destroyed that. She deserves a whole lot more than a slap on the wrist. Lock her up & throw away the key.

[John F Meacham III]

07:40 AM on 03/05/2012

Apparently Clara Rea H doesn't view it as such (few posts up). She probably would have cheered the burning of this national treasure.

[Teri Springer]

02:53 PM on 03/06/2012

Some people don't have the intelligence to see the significance in this action. Yes, it was just one tree. And one tree, and one tree. Every year we lose over 60,000 sq km of forest....and area the size of Ireland. If we don't take this seriously, it won't be that long before we have deforested the entire planet. And the tree was more than "just" a tree. It was a landmark. A piece of history. Some people also have no respect for that. They are too self-centered.

[AbsoluteTruthiness]

11:14 AM on 03/05/2012

I'd say there isn't severe enough punishment for this druggie. She was cognizant enough to take pictures and upload, right? I agree. Her bail should be $350,000 ($100 for every year the tree was on this earth) and then, the punishment should be life in prison. Let's see how she thinks then.

[vtmv]

03:16 PM on 03/07/2012

Spot on!

[ekstatik]

07:07 PM on 03/25/2012

This woman is obviously seriously messed up. Long jail term for sure, with treatment. Maybe if there were more treatment available, she wouldn't have reached this point. All-around tragedy, sort of what the US is beginning to look like.

[gardinsprite13]

05:07 AM on 03/05/2012

This is sad I remember going as a child to see this Tree and then bring my own children.
But the war on Drugs is the real crime. Legalize them all if people want to do themselves in it's there choice.
Tax will bring in Money on sales. Less people in Jail, well in FL they make money on People in Jails now. We will have less crime so difficult in a Police State like FL. Go to FL on Vacation and leave on Probation.

[wsa999]

05:33 AM on 03/05/2012

The tree has actually grown a bit since you've been there. You could be a Ron Paul fan. Yes. Legalize drugs and your kids will have easy access to them. I guess that doesn't bother you. Then they will go and visit the tree once again on their own.

[gardinsprite13]

05:48 AM on 03/05/2012

You make no sense. I was there last year how can you make a judgement as to times we Visited this tree?
People have their own mind, body and soul,no Government has a right to control this.
A personal choice is Personal,drugs,drinking, religion and life partner.
Again we do not need Government Control. You may like it over there in the middle east they control everything.
Karma has a way of teaching life lessons.

[Alex Santarelli]

05:56 AM on 03/05/2012

they have easy access now. legalize them and they may not seem like such a rebellious lure

[albainngubrath]

05:07 AM on 03/05/2012

Ok. Why?

[joseph m col]

04:53 AM on 03/05/2012

people like her give people who like drugs a bad name

[joseph m col]

04:45 AM on 03/05/2012

awesome bring the smores

[John F Meacham III]

07:43 AM on 03/05/2012

People like you really amaze me that being human could even exist. Tell you what, when someone sets fire to your house I will bring the smores.

[Desertclouds]

10:36 AM on 03/05/2012

What if hes a free man and doesn't own a house? Your a backwards guy, you talk about saving the tree and how awesome it was and that it should be respected. But when it comes to a human life you have no respect. You would let another companion die just because they did something wrong or stupid, who hasn't? You are just as bad as the people you are insulting and It's embarrassing!

[Anonymous Guy]

04:43 AM on 03/05/2012

This person.... dont they have any security around a 3500 year old tree? and taking drugs. This person deserves a life sentence

[albainngubrath]

05:08 AM on 03/05/2012

? Guard all our old trees? Lol

[Gordon Pargellis]

04:40 AM on 03/05/2012

One DOES have to wonder, though, from a purely technical standpoint, how the Hell she accomplished this. An 18'-wide live tree is not something you burn down by tossing a book of matches at it. What kind of preparation did she get to do? How much time involved? I mean, if you had perfect firggin' dried-out logs sitting in the field, what would it take YOU to make a fire? And this, a mongasso living tree??! What the heck did she have access to, anyway? Napalm? A flamethrower?

[albainngubrath]

05:11 AM on 03/05/2012

RIGHT!?!?! I can't even get the kindling in my fireplace to light!

[albainngubrath]

05:13 AM on 03/05/2012

ALL HAIL OBAMA!! ALL HAIL OBAMA!!

[mike711l]

04:27 AM on 03/05/2012

Arbor day is now a day of mourning. Does Hallmark have a card for that?

[Gordon Pargellis]

04:25 AM on 03/05/2012

BETTER justice would be stick a white phosphorus grenade up her regionals and let HER burn from the inside out.
Waste of a perfectly good incendiary, though.

[albainngubrath]

05:14 AM on 03/05/2012

WOW Dude ... it was a tree! I'm sure a very nice tree ... but still... a tree.

[swchills]

01:58 PM on 03/05/2012

Have to agree with you on that. It really is a shame to loose such a treasure but dude... get your priorities strait. Maybe you need to see a professional about that anger isue you have.

[gardinsprite13]

11:49 PM on 03/05/2012

Everything here is temporary even human's. Everything has energy even human's.
But Tree's do not have a Soul,people do.
This soul will have it's karmic debt to pay! But this way is dark, not good.
Look inside your anger find where it's come's from.
Some woman and men who are exhibitionists.They like to expose themselves their material body's to the World. Wasting time in the learning place,taking for granted their right to be human.
So through transmigration of the soul they come back as a Tree, she may have set it free!
There is always another way to look at things without uncontrolled emotions giving into the senses,can carry away a persons intelligence.

[mike711l]

04:24 AM on 03/05/2012

But she looks like such an upstanding citizen.

[mike711l]

04:23 AM on 03/05/2012

Don't ask how old she is, cut her in half and count the rings!