Fires Raging in Fla.; Little Hope of Rain

At least nine large fires burned across drought-stricken Florida on Saturday, sending smoke over Disney World, and there was still no soaking rain in the forecast.

The fires burning Saturday included one in central Florida that has sent smoke drifting across Walt Disney World Resort at Orlando since Thursday. The 450-acre blaze, two miles from Disney, was 35% contained Saturday.

Disney officials said all theme parks would remain open.

The largest wildfire--in the Big Cypress National Preserve, 75 miles west of Miami--has burned 20,800 acres in the last week and was only about 30% to 35% contained by Saturday.

A blaze in Everglades National Park had burned about 8,000 acres in a remote section of Miami-Dade County, but was nearly contained, said Matt Weinell, a Division of Forestry officer in Tallahassee.

In the Fakahatchee Strand, a state preserve in southwestern Florida, a 12,800-acre fire reached Picayune State Forest. Other fires burned in forest and swampland in central Florida and the Panhandle.

“We are forecasting rain for the middle through the later part of next week, but the confidence level here is not very high that will actually happen,” said Wayne Colin, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Miami.