The indigenous tree climber who saved a burning sequoia – and became a living legend

In his 42 years with the National Park Service, Charlie Castro was among the few people trusted to scale the giant trees. Now 89, he has watched as fire has transformed the American west

From the helicopter, Charlie Castro could gaze down into the heart of the tree, a hollowed-out cavity alive with raging red flame.

Just hours earlier, he had been in Montana, where forest fires were racing across the timberland. But when lightning struck one of the giant sequoias in California's celebrated Grant Grove, sparking a blaze that threatened to spread across its thousand-year-old trees, the National Park Service needed a firefighter who could climb right up to the conifer's burning crown, succeeding where efforts by land and air had failed.