Wildfires on the Rise
August 30th, 2011 by flanewsThe state got a short break from massive wildfires, but they’re back.
In June more than 400 wildfires were raging at once. Two wet months helped firefighters extinguish many of the blazes, but the rain wasn’t enough to pull many parts of the state out of the drought. Over the weekend several fires sparked up in the panhandle. There were 55 statewide Tuesday. Florida Forest Service Director Jim Karels says there are more fires than usual this month and the state is about to enter a dry season.
“If we don’t get essentially a named storm, if we don’t get a tropical event, we are going to go into our dry season, which is not far away very dry already so it will compound what we see the next coming year,” said Karels.
A storm of tropical proportions that brings water but not destruction is what firefighters are hoping for. In the mean time, they’re asking people to be careful when cooking outdoors, building campfires or burning trash.
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