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It’s shaping up to be another bad year for wildfires. Right now 79 fires are burning statewide, 14 of them are consuming 100 acres or more.

Nearly 15-hundred fires have been reported since the first of the year charring 58-thousand acres of forest. That’s 10 thousand more than burned in the same time period last year. Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam says the drought index is to blame.

“It’s a hundred points higher, more dry at this point this year than it was last year and we all know what a terrible wildfire season 2011 was. So this is a very serious situation,” said Putnam.

The director of the Florida Forest Service will give an update to the state cabinet tomorrow about wildfires and what can be expected this summer.