LEE COUNTY, Fla. — You might have seen some of the rather large fires in recent weeks in Collier, Lee, and Charlotte counties as fire season ramps up.
Fox 4 Meteorologist Andrew Shipley spoke with the Florida Forest Service about the recent fires, our dry season, and what you can do as a homeowner.
“The rain we just had a few days ago (March 29th and 30th), is good to help us out a little bit, but we are not out of the woods yet,” said Florida Forest Service Area Supervisor Ryan Mason.
Almost every spring in Southwest Florida we are waiting for rain to return. And while we wait for rain, brush fires begin to spark.
“We are expected to have a deficit of rain for the next two months,” said Florida Forest Service Fire Mitigation Specialist Michael Harris.
And while things still look green, a lot of the tropical plants we all enjoy are very oily. That means they can carry a flame very easily.
Mason says this is what makes fires unique in Florida.
“Florida fuels are designed to burn,” said Mason. “And even if it is green, it still can be consumed by a fire. That is something we don’t see in a lot of other places around the country.”
In addition to the typical fuels that the Florida Forest Service typically deals with, they are still seeing the dead trees from Hurricane Ian playing a factor.
“We probably still going to be dealing with most of that debris for at least another two to three years; because there was a lot of large timber that went down with that, that is going to take quite a few years to decay,” said Harris.
Harris went on to say that the debris from the storm adds to the difficulty of fighting our recent brush fires.
“You have issues of slowing down the dozers because you have obstacles in your way,” said Harris. “You have an increased fuel load on the ground.
And speaking of dozers, the Florida Forest Service almost exclusively uses dozers, otherwise known as tractor plows, to contain our brush fires.
“Fire needs three things to burn. It needs fuel, it needs heat, and it needs oxygen,” said Mason. “So, when the fire department shows up on scene with their brush trucks, by them adding water to the fire they are removing the heat. It extinguishes it. What we do with our equipment, is we remove the fuel.”
You can help lower the fire risk on your property by removing dead and overgrown brush, creating what firefighters call 30 feet of defensible space.
“It could be the difference between having a house and having one consumed by a fire,” said Mason.
It is also recommended to have a plan, similar to a hurricane preparedness plan, if you are forced to evacuate.
“The only thing with wildfire is it could be last minute,” said Harris. “While with a hurricane you might have several days to know, a wildfire evacuation could be within minutes of a fire starting.”
And if a fire does start, the Florida Forest Service wants to remind you not to fly drones. If you fly, they cannot. It could be the difference in saving not only homes, but lives.
