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Highlands Today

When Wildfire Threatens, Sometimes A Lone Firefighter Must Make A Stand

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

A Division of Forestry firefighter puts out a hot spot to prevent it from spreading to Henscratch Farms on Monday off of Henscratch Road.

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By Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today

Published: February 14, 2008

LAKE PLACID — About 400 acres of brushy, forested land burned Monday and Tuesday, but no houses, no barns, no businesses were damaged.

Exactly how does that happen, when hundreds of structures are threatened?
"We use a brush truck when possible," said Highlands County Fire Services Supervisor Charles Andrews. That's a 1-ton or a 1.5 ton pickup with about 300 gallons of water.

"We let them defend a house," he said.
That's what happened Monday.

Johanne Lauchman owns Henscratch Farms. The general store is a football field away from the forest, across Henscratch Road from the fire.
Her husband called her over to watch.

"There were places in the forest where you could see the fire," said Lauchman. "And within six or eight minutes, it was just solid. The flames were over 40 feet high."

But fire engines and brush trucks drove onto her property, and the firefighters made their stand. Burning embers were flying into the air and landing on her property, and the fire supervisor directed his men to put them out.

"The man even said to me, 'My job is defense,'" Lauchman recalled.
Would Henscratch Farms have burned if not for these firefighters?

"Absolutely," Lauchman said at noon Tuesday. She went on for more than a minute, praising the firefighters.

At that moment, Melissa Yunas, a wildfire mitigation specialist with Florida Division of Forestry, called on a cell phone. The fire was flaring up behind two homes, which were threatened.

In both cases, trucks were already on the scene. Several firefighters gathered behind Bert Dawson's house and farmette, 2717 Grand Concourse, but next door, at Joyce Wilson's small home, it was just volunteer Robert Rode, by himself, with a brush truck from Leisure Lakes Fire Department. He unrolled a hose, tested it, and waited.

Rode, who owns a lawnmower business, had shifted his clients on Tuesday to work closer to the Henscratch area. When the flare-up occurred, he manned the red brush truck.

Minutes later, flames appeared through the forest, maybe 100 feet away, but Rode didn't respond.
Is it scary back there, alone, just man against fire?

"At times, it can be," said Jimmy Branca, a county fire service supervisor. It was Branca who came inches from death Monday when two utilities poles, on fire, snapped and an electric line de-energized a moment before it fell on Branca (Firefighter Nearly Electrocuted: 'I Should Be Dead,' Highlands Today, Feb. 13, 2008)

"Normally, those trucks will carry up to 300 gallons," said Andrews. With quick bursts of water, they can keep the flames in check. They could send trucks with more water, but they're so heavy they can crack a driveway slab.

The state forestry department also assigns brush trucks to defend houses, but it has an additional advantage — bulldozers, Yunas said. Each time the blade passes by, eight feet of underbrush, palmettos even small saplings are stripped from the earth. The heavy dozer has a 10-foot blade, so three passes will clear a 30-foot firebreak behind a house.

And then, as happened Tuesday, the danger is gone.

"What we see quite often," Branca said, his voice sounding almost disappoint-ed, "is you make yourself prepared, and the wind shifts directions and goes away. Which we welcome."

Fire StillSmoldering On Wednesday

The cause of Monday's fire at Leisure Lakes is still undetermined, fire officials said.

Jimmy Branca, a Highlands County fire service supervisor, was fairly certain the fire did not start in a structure, since none burned.

Melissa Yunas, a wildfire mitigation specialist, said the Florida Division of Forestry was still investigating at noon Wednesday.

The fire was 95 percent out at that point, but the inch of rain received on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning had not doused the fire entirely.

A homeowner reported seeing flames at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The fire was still smoldering, but still contained within the forestry department's man-made fire breaks, Yunas said. Bulldozers circled the fire, scraping away all the vegetation.

"We're going to bring in our Gyrotrack," Yunas said, a mulcher. "But our lines did hold, and everything still looks good."

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