Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
The look and smell is the same. But this time a Polk County swamp fire is to blame.
By CRAIG PITTMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 25, 2001
Smell the smoke today? This time it's from flames in a Polk County swamp, not the one in North Florida.
A combination of wind and wildfire has sent a plume of smoke across the Tampa Bay area two days in a row this week, and weather experts were predicting that Friday would be no different.
The Polk swamp fire also forced the evacuations of residents in an area west of Haines City.
Pinellas County issued an air pollution advisory because of high ozone levels and recommended limited outdoor exertion for active people, the elderly and people with respiratory disease.
Beleaguered firefighters got some welcome news Thursday, as the drought conditions in much of the southern third of the state improved after Wednesday's torrential rains.
A cold front pushing through the state dumped as much as 3 inches in some areas.
"That was very helpful," said Terence McElroy, a spokesman with the Florida Division of Forestry. "That was a real good rain."
McElroy said the rains would also help fire officials with staffing concerns. As the threat of fire in South Florida drops, crews can be reassigned to other hot spots.
West Central Florida could get some during the Memorial Day weekend. Forecasters hint of afternoon thunderstorms for the coming week.
On Wednesday, smoke from a 20,000-acre blaze in the Mallory Swamp about 100 miles east of Tallahassee made for such a thick haze in the streets of St. Petersburg that motorists on Fourth Street N had to turn on their headlights at 6 p.m.
By Thursday morning, the haze was lighter but the smoky smell was still there. National Weather Service meteorologist John McMichael said the acrid scent was from a pair of fires on the fringes of the Green Swamp in Polk County.
"You probably will smell it again (today)," McMichael said.
One Polk fire covered 100 acres, the other 950. The larger fire caused the closing of Old Polk City Road and State Road 557, and the evacuation of 30 homes. The smaller fire, about 5 miles northeast of Lakeland, was contained.
Meanwhile, a 1,400-acre blaze near the Walt Disney World resort was 80 percent contained. The fire, caused by a lightning strike last week, has sent smoke into the resort area 3 miles away and into Orlando, about 30 miles northeast.
Containment just means firefighters can keep the blaze from spreading, not that the fire is out. The Polk blaze that prompted the closing of Interstate 4 earlier this year, although contained, still is burning three months after it started, according to Matt Weinell, fire management officer for the state Division of Forestry.
"They'll keep burning until we get a tropical depression in here," Weinell said.
The big fire now is the Mallory Swamp fire, which has prompted the voluntary evacuation of 50 to 100 homes and the closing of U.S. 19 south of the blaze. The haze from the swamp fire, clearly visible on satellite photos of the state, spread as far south as Bradenton and into South Florida.
Several dozen firefighters tackled the Mallory Swamp fire with bulldozers and two helicopters. Jim Karels, fire chief for the Florida Division of Forestry, said it was tough to contain because it was growing in all directions, rather than winds pushing it one way or another.
Firefighters from as far away as the Carolinas have been brought in to do battle, and helicopters from Ocala and Tallahassee are attacking it from the air, Weinell said. But so far the blaze is only 20 percent contained.
"It's in a heavy swamp with thick timber," Weinell said. "With the drought and the wind like it is, it's hard to contain it."
The federal government pledged aid Thursday to help fight the Mallory Swamp fire. The Federal Emergency Management Agency pays 70 percent of what the state spends annually above $1.52-million.
This is the ninth time this year FEMA has granted disaster aid to Florida.
Lake Okeechobee's water level fell 3/100th of a foot on Thursday to an all-time low of 8.79 feet, despite the up to 4 inches of rain that fell Tuesday and Wednesday. The Kissimmee River Basin, the primary source of water for Lake Okeechobee, received less than an inch of rain.
The state is now between 50 and 60 inches below normal over the four-year drought, which again threatens the state's summer crops.
Since Jan. 1, Florida has had more than 2,700 wildfires, burning about 204,000 acres.
-- Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.