Home Weather Lottery Classifieds Sports Comics Interact AP Wire Web Specials

Thunder and blazes: Crews control fires with help of storms Times staff writer © St. Petersburg Times, published July 12, 1998 ith a lot of help from the weather, firefighters are now solidly in control of wildfires that have plagued North Florida and the east coast since Memorial Day. Click here for full coverage of the Florida Fires Only eight new fires started overnight Friday -- the first time in three weeks that number has been in single digits. Since June 1, state forestry officials have logged 2,176 fires in the state and those blazes have burned almost 500,000 acres and more than 350 structures. Volusia, Flagler, Brevard and Seminole counties all have received a healthy dose of thundershowers in recent days that helped douse the flames. But officials cautioned that the ground remains very dry, and fires could return if the traditional summer thunderstorm pattern doesn't fully establish itself. Business | Citrus | Commentary | Entertainment Hernando | Floridian | Obituaries | Pasco | Sports State | Tampa Bay | World & Nation © Copyright 1998 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.