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Highlands Today

Blaze Threatened Mall, Post Office

Gary Pinnell, Highlands Today

Firefighters stationed their pumpers on the road between Lakeshore Mall and the burning woods to the south on Saturday afternoon. Farther to the west, the post office was enveloped in smoke, with brush trucks protecting it. To their backs was Kmart, where ladder trucks placed men on the roof to watch for burning embers.

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By GARY PINNELL

Highlands Today

Published: March 16, 2009

SEBRING - How close did Lakeshore Mall and the Lake Jackson post office come to burning down Saturday afternoon?

Sebring and Avon Park firefighters were on the mall roof until after 7 p.m., watching for hot embers from the brush, palmettos, palms and pine trees, which were ablaze, out of control, for more than six hours.

On Sunday morning, the woods were still smoking, but the flames were out, and the mall had reopened. There were a half-dozen black spots around the post office, where the grass caught fire but was put out with hoses.

West Sebring, Leisure Lakes, and state forestry firefighters in brush trucks stood their ground Saturday between the flaming 17-acre woods and the post office. For hours, the post office was enveloped in smoke. It couldn't be seen from the southeast corner of Kmart, where Sebring Fire Chief Brad Batz was directing efforts to protect the mall.

Brush Fire

West Sebring Fire Department got the call at 1 p.m. Saturday about a grass fire around a fireworks warehouse on Flare Road. Chief Scott Mann said the grass fire on the southeast corner was contained before it got inside the concrete block buildings. Property owners assisted with their own garden hoses.

"We don't know what started it, whether it was a cigarette or a transmission line or what," Mann said as looked up at the overhead powerlines.

But the fire had already jumped Flare Road and - propelled by the wind - sped across the dense brush behind Alan Jay Nissan.

The Florida Division of Forestry sent bulldozers to establish fire lines, but 2:30 p.m., however, emergency personnel said on police scanners the blaze had jumped those ditches.

Lakeshore Mall was evacuated.

William Tran, owner of Expert Nails, at the mall said that firefighters told him and his clients to evacuate the store at about 4 p.m. yesterday.

"It was really busy," Tran said, but his customers were more than willing to go.

Tran said he could smell smoke for several hours before he was told to evacuate.

Because he wasn't able to finish some manicures and pedicures for some of his clients he didn't charge them.

Outside, dozens of spectators gathered to watch the fire. The woods are owned by Tim Blackman, who also showed up at the scene. He said the area is swampy and mucky.

By 6:50 p.m., forestry spokeswoman Melissa Yunas said the fire was 80 percent contained.

"There are pockets of unburned vegetation in the swamp that firefighters will have to extinguish," Yunas said.

By 7:30 p.m., the fire had reached the trees between the mall access road and Kmart. Forestry bulldozers had already knocked down the trees between the mall road and the forest, and used drip torches to set back fires. The strategy, Batz said, was to let the fire burn to that control line, so firefighters could stop it on their own turf.

Highlands Today reporter Laura Nesbitt contributed to this report

Highlands Today senior reporter Gary Pinnell can be reached at gpinnell@highlandstoday.com or 863-386-5828.

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