LEHIGH ACRES, Fla — There's still a month left in hurricane season. Houses in Lehigh Acres stay boarded up even though Hurricane Milton swept through two weeks ago.
Long-time Lehigh Acres resident Ann said, "I'm going to keep them up until hurricane season's over."
Many of her neighbors choose to do the same and keep their hurricane shutters up or windows boarded.
"It's time consuming, and they're heavy so that's why I don't keep them up and down and up and down too much," she said.
Ann knows the risk when it comes to her safety.
Watch Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades report below:
"As you can see, some of those are off. They say leave something open, so if you do have a fire, you don't block every single opening," Ann said.
Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue Public Information Officer Katie Heck said, it's worth taking them down for your safety.
"We know that it takes a lot of time to take them down and then maybe have to put them right back up for another storm, but when you think about the daily safety of your family, we want to make sure that everyone is able to get out of the house safely if there's an emergency," Katie Heck said.
When windows are boarded up, it slows firefighters down, traps you and the heat and smoke inside.
A crew showed Lehigh Acres Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades what they do in a house fire when the shutters are still up.
Firefighters saw through the metal shutters and pry them off windows.
Within a few minutes flames can engulf your home, and when it takes minutes to remove the shutters, it wastes valuable life saving time.
Heck said, "We hate to see something that is preventable like that maybe stopping being able to save somebody."
Two years ago, Lehigh Fire and Rescue responded to a house fire where all the windows stayed boarded up.
"Their entire shed was engulfed in flames really close to their home, and they had no idea it was on fire because they didn't have a visual of their backyard," Heck shared.
Lehigh Acres Fire and Rescue doesn't want to see that happen again, so they urge the community to take down whatever blocks their windows before it's too late.
