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Highlands Today

Dry Conditions

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Forest ranger Josh Watkins burns brush in the Avon Park Estates neighborhood on Tuesday in Avon Park. The brush is burned to help control future brush fires.

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By Douglas  Carman | Highlands Today

Published: December 5, 2007

SEBRING — State and federal officials have started several controlled fires through Highlands County since Monday, with more planned through mid-December.

The cool, dry weather coming to the area made it a good time for the Division of Forestry to start as many controlled fires as possible, said Tim Elder, the division's forest area supervisor for Highlands County.

"What's going to get us to (stop) is a frost," he said.

After that first frost, Elder explained, grasses and small vegetation dies off and dries up, starting the wildfire season. At that point, they have to be on the defense.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also started fires around the Sebring Regional Airport, doing a 140-acre burn Monday in the Carter Creek area and a 115-acre controlled fire in the Flamingo Villas reserve near the airport. The Florida Division of Forestry, meanwhile, is working on a smaller 50-acre fire in Avon Park Estates.

A large column of smoke from the Flamingo Villas fire could be seen from the west side of Lake Jackson Tuesday morning, and this will continue through today as one more 118-acre parcel of the Flamingo Villas area is burned.

The Florida Division of Forestry will conduct multiple fires through mid-December or later as long as the weather is cooperating before the wildfire season begins, Elder said.

He predicted an "above average" season. "I wouldn't say exceptional yet," Elder added. "It could happen, but I hope not."

The last "exceptional" wildfire season, Elder said, took place in 2000 and 2001. Those years were at the tail end of a historic drought. The South Florida Water Management District previously warned that the current drought was approaching the severity of that one.

Ron Hight, a Merritt Island-based range manager with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said some of the fires performed since Monday were scheduled three years ago. The Lake Wales Ridge, which includes the Flamingo Villas reserve, is divided into several parcels that are burned on a rotating seven-year cycle, he said. For the three being burned this week, the conditions were not right until now.

"It's just taking us a long time logistically," Hight said.

Controlled fires are intentionally started to keep undergrowth down. If allowed to build up, they can create hotter fires that both destroy wooded areas and pose threats to nearby developments in a resulting wildfire.

Controlled burns, which are less intense, encourage the growth of some plants whose seeds could only sprout after the ground they're in is burned, said Gary Morse, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

A press release from Melissa Yunas, a wildfire mitigation specialist with the Division of Forestry, urged everyone to be careful with starting outdoor fires, whether they are campfires or trash burning. She said in the release that "outdoor burning has been the cause of several serious wildfires in the past," while Elder believed it was the biggest cause of fires during the dry season.

Highlands County has had 106 wildfires since Jan. 1, 2007. This is near the average for the county.

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