Twenty-seven years ago, wildfires broke out across Florida due to lightning and dry weather conditions. For two months, the blazes raged, burning – according to one source – half a million acres, 100 structures and 86 vehicles. An estimated $300 million in timber was lost, and 135 miles of I-95 were closed from Jacksonville south.
St. Johns County bore much of the impact, though it was perhaps worse in Flagler County, which was completely evacuated.
At the time, firefighting in St. Johns County was handled by a volunteer department.
“The volunteers were just unable to get to those fires in a timely manner, which is what caused the fires to spread like they did,” St. Johns County Fire Rescue Chief Sean McGee told the County Commission during its regular meeting Tuesday, Jan. 21.
McGee was asked by commission Chair Krista Joseph to speak on the status of the county’s fire prevention efforts in the wake of news about the devastating fires in Southern California.
More than 40,000 acres in that region have been burned and more than two dozen people have died. Mass evacuations, countless homes destroyed and strained resources have left people wondering whether their own communities could face such devastation.
“What California’s experiencing really is a bunch of individual things that came together at the wrong time,” said McGee. “Our hearts and prayers go out to those folks out there. It’s a level of devastation I haven’t witnessed in my 26 years in this business.”
Fortunately for St. Johns County, locals learned a valuable lesson from the 1998 fires. A professional firefighting department was created and critical strategies have been implemented to guard against any repeat.
The ultimate authority over wildfires in Florida resides with the state Division of Forestry, but Fire Rescue acts as a support agency. In this, it has the ability to seek aid from St. Augustine, surrounding counties and other entities across the state.
One thing Florida has going for it that California does not is its topography. Fire burns slower across flat land than it does on mountainous terrain. The state’s wet environment and absence of the type of winds found in Southern California benefit the Sunshine State.
An adequate supply of water is critical. Hydrants in St. Johns County are checked twice a year and crews train heavily for fires in areas where there are no hydrants. Firefighters are able to use retention ponds, lakes and other static bodies of water, and tankers can be deployed to act as portable hydrants.
Anthony Petellat, manager for the state Forestry Service district that serves St. Johns, Flagler and Volusia counties, also spoke at Tuesday’s meeting.
He cited a couple of challenges associated with the rapid growth in this area, primarily heavy traffic that can hinder large trucks responding to fires and construction of homes that butt up against swamps, which firefighters have great difficulty accessing.
He called prescribed burns the most cost-effective tool they have.
“Last year in the state of Florida, we burned about a quarter of a million acres, which is a record high for us,” he said. “If we don’t prescribe-burn, Florida is a ‘fire machine.’ That fuel is going to just continue to build and build, and then when a wildfire does happen – because we are the lightning capital – it is going to just be devastating.”
But McGee ended on a positive note, again by comparing current conditions to those in 1998.
“With the coverage and the personnel and the equipment that we have now, we’re a lot more covered,” he said. “We can get there a lot faster.”
