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Wildfires cause mandatory evacuationBy GEOFF DOUGHERTY © St. Petersburg Times, published July 1, 1998 They let residents back into their houses and gave a pat on the back to the helicopter pilots who soaked the flames with an aerial bucket brigade. But that was before the winds changed and the lightning arrived. By 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, an additional 100 homes were evacuated as the ocean breeze that had been keeping the fire in check faded. Residents of the Lake Harney Woods neighborhood about 5 miles from the earlier evacuation site were ordered to leave, said Brevard fire Lt. Paul Stepina. They remained out of their homes late Tuesday. The ocean breeze was replaced by a 20 mph wind that fanned three separate blazes, close together along State Road 46. The new winds led authorities to close SR 46 in southeastern Volusia County and order some firefighters to abandon their positions. And with the winds as fickle as they were after the sun went down, officials were offering little reassurance to the residents of the Fawn Lake subdivision, who were evacuated earlier in the day but allowed to return. "This could go on for a while," Stepina said. Those who live in the affluent neighborhood inland from Cape Canaveral seemed resigned to the danger. Ken Emerick, an engineer who had recently finished building his home in Fawn Lake, at first refused to leave. But later he realized that was foolish. "I'm no hero," he said. "I've got a few hundred feet of that soaker hose on the roof, but that's not going to do it." Later, however, after the ocean breeze kicked up, officials believed they had the fire contained and told people in Mims' neighborhood they could return as they stayed alert to the fire's position. "We've got firefighters all around it, so it's looking good. It's burning back on itself right now," said Joan Heller, spokeswoman with Brevard County Emergency Management. This fire, like others burning in spots throughout Florida, has proven unpredictable. Firefighters had contained the wildfire west of the small towns of Scottsmoor and Mims. But shifting winds pushed the blaze toward homes Tuesday, prompting Brevard County officials to issue their first mandatory evacuation order since fires began burning across Florida on Memorial Day. Firefighters in Brevard kept any homes from burning, but officials warned residents to keep a close watch on the fire. "They're being told to monitor news reports closely and be prepared to leave quickly if necessary," Heller said. A shelter was opened at nearby Mims Elementary School, but only six people had showed up Tuesday afternoon. One of them, Megan McDonald, said she packed pictures, mementos and a CD collection, but left behind clothes. "Tons of clothes, nothing that I couldn't replace," she said. Even as the evacuation order was in effect, Gerald and Maryann Pollard sat in plastic chairs in front of their three-bedroom home and listened to a portable radio for updates on the fire. "I don't feel that threatened yet," said Gerald Pollard, who was smoking and drinking a bottle of Bud Light. "If it seems like it gets any closer, we're ready to go." To the north in southern Volusia County, officials were urging -- but not ordering -- residents to stay away from about 300 homes in three areas threatened by fires. Fire crews continued battling blazes near Lake Harney, where a 200-home subdivision about 35 miles south of Daytona Beach was threatened. However, firefighters were unable to maintain their ledger of no homes burned. Crews could not reach an unoccupied home in the Piney Woods subdivision before flames got to it Monday. In neighboring Flagler County to the north, cement trucks hauled water Tuesday to an open pit used by helicopters to fill water buckets for air drops. The water level in the pit, near State Road 11, had gotten so low that buckets were not getting completely filled. One company, East Coast Concrete, shut down operations and sent its trucks to fill up at hydrants and dump the water into the pit. Meanwhile, lightning was blamed for most of the 73 new fires that state officials said were started around the state Monday alone. Most of those fires were in northeastern Florida, between Jacksonville and Gainesville, and state fire officials Tuesday were assigning fire crews and equipment to fight the blazes before they developed. More than 1,500 fires since Memorial Day have burned 79 homes and almost 247,000 acres -- mostly forest, palmetto scrub and swamp land -- from one tip of Florida to the other.
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IMS -- As they packed up Tuesday afternoon, firefighters in Brevard County thought they had gotten the best of a 10,000-acre wildfire that had forced the evacuation of about 2,300 homes.
