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Triple digit temperatures and little rain fall, especially in the Panhandle, is turning Florida into a tinder box. Much of the state remains in a drought, as Mike Vasilinda tells us.

As Wednesday began, 380 active fires were being fought.  More than 400,000 acres of state and federal lands are burning, and in Hamilton County, where two firefighters lost their lives on Monday, cleanup operations continued on the Blue Ribbon Fire, now 100 percent contained.

“We continue to have extreme drought, and dry, windy conditions,” Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said.

In 1998, one of the worst fire years on record, there were fewer fires, but they were larger. Interstates were closed and more than a hundred homes and businesses were destroyed. So far this year 20 houses have been lost.

But fires dot the I-4 corridor and affect every area of the state. Increasing rain is forecasted, but firefighters say storms can be a mixed blessing.

“With that comes lightning, so we would just have more fires,” State Forestry Director Jim Karels said. “But if we can get rain, that 50 percent rain chance each day, it starts to get better.”

Funeral arrangements for the firefighters who died on Monday are being made. The Department of Agriculture says there is a lesson in their deaths: fire moves quickly and unpredictably.

“This fire really exploded in size in a very short period of time,” Putnam said. “And it caught them.”

Florida remains so dry, 28 counties currently have burn bans and the list is growing daily.

The drought index is up 5 points since Tuesday, to 595. A ranking of 800 would be a desert.