Photo: Florida Forest Service / Courtesy
Florida fire officials and emergency workers are facing two major wildfires that have left thousands of acres ablaze and forcing at least 1,000 people in the Florida Panhandle who were still recovering from the passage of the category 5 hurricane more than three years ago.
As of Sunday afternoon the growing flames from Bertha Swamp Road had burned 9 ,000 acres, i.e. 14 square miles, and was only contained on 10%.
The Adkins fire, believed to have been started by a man residing there and burning trash, which then spiraled out of control, destroying two structures and destroying 10 houses on Friday in the night.
Officers reported that they were unaware of the damage caused by the Bertha fire, but it moved toward Bear Creek on Sunday, threatening a community of 2,000 people, mostly people from the third Age.
The governor Florida resident Ron DeSantis told a news conference Sunday afternoon that the Bertha Swamp Road disaster is “a big kid and it’s spreading very quickly.”
“Today is the perfect day for these types of fires to move, unfortunately, (because) you have very dry conditions and a lot of wind”, DeSantis said.
“We have deployed four attack teams with firefighting engines at the state level (which) are assembled to support local firefighting resources… and can do both structural and forest protection”.
Furthermore, local officials reported Monday that no first responders were injured while battling the fire in Bay County.
“Contrary to national media reports, there are no deaths or injuries ( by) the wildfires in Bay County “, says a post on the Facebook page of the Emergency Services of Bay County, Florida. “All rescuers are safe”.
On the other hand, a third fire flared up on Sunday afternoon, which has spread from 40 to 163 acres due to high winds and dry weather conditions, the Florida Forest Service-Chipola reported by medium of Twitter.
Evacuations are underway for the Clifford Chester Sims State Veterans Nursing Home.
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