Fires Rage in a Dry Florida

Florida’s tinder-dry grasslands, swamps and forests were ablaze in more than 190 locations across the state Tuesday, and thick smoke from some fires was thought to have played a part in multiple highway pileups.

The state’s largest wildfire in 16 years--raging for more than two weeks now--has burned nearly 61,000 acres of commercial timberland and swamp in the northern counties of Dixie and Lafayette.

Jim Harrell, spokesman for the Florida Division of Forestry, blamed the number of fires on the record drought that has parched much of the state since spring 1998--plus the onset of summer thunderstorms.

“The storms moving into some areas mean rain, but with things so dry, it’s just not enough,” Harrell said from the state capital of Tallahassee. “And on their trailing edge, the storms bring lightning strikes.”

The weather in much of Florida has been dry for so long that in Lake County, in the state’s center, a 700-acre fire broke out in a lake bed now empty of water.

A lightning bolt is believed to have ignited Florida’s biggest fire since 1985, a blaze near Mallory Swamp, between Tallahassee and Gainesville. Fifteen days later, more than 400 firefighters, including some flown in from the Carolinas, were struggling to contain it along a 45-mile perimeter Tuesday. Reinforcements also were expected from Florida’s National Guard.

Bulldozers have been brought in from as far as Wyoming, Utah and Arizona to attempt to plow firebreaks in the woods and peat muck. On Monday, another blaze broke out 3 miles to the northwest and grew to 1,200 acres.

Timber losses in the Mallory Swamp conflagration alone were estimated at $10 million.

Along Interstate 4, the east-west artery linking Daytona Beach to Tampa via Orlando, smoke from large fires in Lake and Polk counties mixed with fog to cut down early morning visibility Monday. On the Memorial Day holiday, one of the busiest travel days of the year, 20 vehicles--including eight tractor-trailers--were involved in five separate crashes.

Henry John Pileggi, 43, of Orlando was killed when his car ran into the back of a tractor-trailer and was rear-ended by another vehicle, police said. At least 10 other people were injured and taken to area hospitals for treatment.

According to state officials, 102 Florida wildfires have erupted in the last four days alone, 40 of them due to lightning. Another 22 are being blamed on arson. Other causes include a campfire that got out of control, a house fire, discarded cigarettes and children playing with matches.

Harrell said that as of Tuesday afternoon, 191 fires were burning across the state, 59 of which were being battled by more than 2,000 firefighters.

So far this year, 2,898 wildfires in Florida have consumed 266,288 acres--or more than the losses for all of last year. A total of 256 houses, bars, hunting lodges and other buildings also have gone up in flames, according to the Division of Forestry. Only minor injuries, including cases of smoke inhalation among firefighters, have been reported.

The Mallory Swamp blaze has proved especially difficult to combat because it is in a remote area and the soil there is laden with peat, which can catch fire and make a mockery of firebreaks, Harrell said.

“When a fire gets to be that size, you don’t have enough firetrucks or hoses to wet it,” he said. “You have to wait on some rain.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.