The rain Central Florida has been seeing across the area is not expected to reverse a dry spell that forest service officials say could lead to a dangerous and destructive wildfire season.
- Recent rain not expected to reverse dry spell, officials say
- Dry conditions worse when considering hurricane-affected vegetation
- FFS encourages residents to be careful w/ outdoor burning
Some firefighters are even comparing this year’s conditions to 1998, when Florida experienced historic wildfires.
Homeowners in the Wedgefield community in east Orange County already had a scare in early March when a 40-acre wildfire threatened homes. It luckily didn’t damage any major structures, but it got within feet of burning some houses.
“We’re really fortunate the fire department has been doing their job and saving our homes,” said Wedgefield resident Charlie Brock.
Spectrum News 13 weather experts say February 2018 was the warmest February ever on record in Central Florida. And there’s been little rain.
“We haven’t had enough rainfall to do anything,” said Cliff Frazier, a spokesperson for the Florida Forest Service.
And forest service officials say the dry conditions are even worse when you consider all of the vegetation blown down by Hurricane Irma last September combined with the foliage killed by frost this winter.
“In the event of a wildfire all of that stuff is going to burn, that’s fuel, so it’s going to fuel the fire,” said Frazier.
Brock says he makes sure there’s some space around his home to protect his family from wildfires.
“I took out all of the trees when I built this home to prevent any fires so they wouldn’t jump from the trees to the home,” Brock said.
Wedgefield is built with canals running through it. The canals create a barrier that can stop wildfires from spreading. And the canals provided a water source for firefighters when they were fighting the recent wildfire in the community.
But it’s been so dry, those canals are drying up. Some of them don’t have water in them anymore.
“It’s horrible,” Brock said. “We need rain so bad.”
Frazier says the Florida Forest Service urges everyone in Central Florida to be very careful with any outdoor burning. And in at least one county, Seminole County, burning is now banned indefinitely.