Everglades Fire a Natural Boon, Officials Say

The flames that have roared through the Everglades, cutting off the region’s main east-west highway and casting smoke over Miami, are part of a natural cycle that forestry officials say will actually help renourish the ecosystem.

“This is actually like a rebirth process,” said John Fish, a spokesman for the state Division of Forestry. “Three months from now you probably won’t even be able to tell this burned.”

Columns of brown and gray smoke rose from the Everglades as the wildfire, which has consumed 160,000 acres, charred the dry saw grass that is home to the alligator, the egret and the whitetail deer.

The fire is burning accumulated dry brush and excess plant growth, making room for new growth, forestry officials said. Such fires have swept the Everglades even before the arrival of humans.

Firefighters had the blaze contained within a perimeter of wet areas, levees and Interstate 75, the main east-west highway known as Alligator Alley. The highway was ordered closed over the weekend, but the smoke thinned enough Tuesday to allow authorities to reopen it to traffic.

Even though the fire will help the ecosystem, forestry officials said, containing it is important because in such dry weather, flames could quickly get out of control and threaten new areas.

The flames were burning in a section of the Everglades’ roughly 2 million acres that is outside Everglades National Park.

A new blaze started just east of the fire’s containment area burned seven acres Tuesday before it was brought under control, and officials blamed arson after a Ford Explorer was spotted in the area.

The primary fire began in the eastern Everglades late last week and may have been ignited by heat from a vehicle’s catalytic converter. Aided by swirling winds, it quickly became the largest of at least 2,542 fires that have burned more than 230,000 acres in Florida this year.

The state Division of Forestry counted 27 new fires across Florida on Monday alone.

Forestry officials expect erratic winds and dry weather to continue in the coming days, making new fires quick to start and difficult to fight.