Kelly McPherson felt a sense of relief Friday night. The 10-acre wildfire that erupted in Levy Prairie, one of her field sites, was contained the same day it sparked up.
“We’ve been particularly droughty lately,” said McPherson, a senior environmental specialist for Alachua County. “We’re in an indefinite deficit with rainfall.”
The Levy Prairie fire burned between Southwest Williston Road and Interstate 75 on Friday afternoon. It was Alachua County’s fifth major fire in the past two months, said Melanie Banton, a spokesperson for the Florida Forest Service.
By Friday night, FFS personnel had suppressed the flames and continued to monitor the prairie over the course of the weekend, Banton said. The fire should be considered completely extinguished before Monday evening, she said.
Banton said because the fire was in a section of the prairie that was inaccessible by trucks and bulldozing equipment, FFS firefighters had to use aircraft and specialized equipment to maintain the fire.
“They held it back pretty good, and the rain helped,” she said.
Since the beginning of the year, about 2,200 wildfires have burned more than 171,000 acres across the state, said Aaron Keller, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. On April 11, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency, citing the state’s severe drought conditions and seven large wildfires across the state, including one in Marion County that burned about 700 acres, according to Alligator archives.
McPherson said wildfires in Florida during the spring and summer months aren’t a surprise.
“It’s normal,” she said. “It’s been in the landscape of Florida since before the Europeans got here.”
However, this year’s drought conditions change the game slightly, she said. Fires can spring up far more easily now and dry soil. Lightning from summer thunderstorms and lack of rain can make for devastating outbreaks.
“Those sorts of fires can smoke for extremely long periods of time, and that’s something that’s not good in an urbanizing landscape,” McPherson said, “smoke being one of the biggest dangers for traffic accidents.”
Rain over this past weekend and stormy forecasts for this week have helped areas like the Panhandle, but other sections of the state like North Central Florida haven’t had such a lucky difference in the drought, Keller said.
“We’re going to need continued rain to bring these counties out of significant drought,” he said. “One rainstorm can’t completely alleviate the danger.”
Contact David Hoffman at dhoffman@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter: @hoffdavid123.
