Firefighters Still Guarding Mall

A wildfire endangered buildings where fireworks are stored, then jumped Flare Road and headed north and west across a vacant field toward Lakeshore Mall and the post office on Saturday afternoon.

West Sebring Fire Department got the call at 1 p.m. and contained the grass fire before it got inside concrete block buildings. Property owners assisted with their own garden hoses.

At 2:30 p.m., however, emergency personnel said on police scanners the out-of-control blaze had jumped ditches cleared by the state forestry department.

"We've got spotters on the roof of the mall," said WSVFD Chief Scott Mann. At 3:25 p.m., with the fire approaching and embers floating, the Avon Park ladder truck also put its two men on the roof.

"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.

Lakeshore Mall was evacuated, and the post office was engulfed in smoke. It couldn't be seen from the southeast corner of Kmart. Even so, dozens of spectators gathered to watch the fire.

"I wouldn't run any more trucks down there," Sebring Fire Chief Brad Batz advised another emergency worker. "If the fire comes this way, they're going to be trapped."

The 17 acres of woods behind Alan Jay Nissan GM are owned by Tim Blackman, who showed up at the scene. He said the area was swampy, mucky, and filled with pine trees.

At 6:50 p.m., forestry spokeswoman Melissa Yunas said the fire was 80 percent contained. She and Batz said firefighters may remain throughout the night.

"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, where Batz ordered West Sebring and state forestry units to let it burn. They had been setting backfires since 6 p.m.