The series of fires that ravaged Florida in 1998 began in mid-May and continued through the early part of July. During this period approximately 500,000 acres were burned in approximately 2,200 separate fires. The causal factors that were responsible for these fires began to develop during the previous year.
During the fall and winter of 1997-98 the El Niño weather pattern caused major worldwide deviations from normal temperatures and precipitation. The impact on Florida was an unusually wet winter, followed by a very dry spring, and an early summer with higher than normal temperatures.
The winter rains promoted unusual growth of the low vegetation and also curtailed the established program of prescriptive burning, which is intended to thin this fuel. The fire risk conditions then increased steadily as the woods dried out and water tables dropped, making the entire state a proverbial tinder box. These conditions developed in April and prevailed through May and June, with record high temperatures, low humidity and no precipitation.
By late May, fire departments and wildland fire forces throughout the state were busy responding to numerous brush and wood fires that were breaking out day after day. A large proportion of these ignitions were caused by dry lightning, while other were man caused, including several suspected cases of arson. This time of the year is known for frequent thunderstorms, however, in 1998 the storm cloud brought the lightning without precipitation. Some of the thunderstorms were triggered by the thermal plumes from large fires.
The fire problem was particularly severe in the northern counties and the Florida panhandle, although there were outbreaks in almost every part of the state. The largest number of fires occurred between along the northeastern side of the state, between Orlando and Jacksonville. This area includes Brevard, Osceola, Orange, Seminole, Flagler, Volusia, St. Johns and Duval Counties.
The fire activity continued to increase during the first week of June with increasing temperatures and no relief from the drought. Fires were breaking out in most of thenorthern Florida counties, particularly in St. Johns and Duval Counties, where several fires threatened the suburban areas of St. Augustine and Jacksonville. Major fires in the Apalachicola and Osceola National Forests caused a major commitment of US Forest Service resources.
During this period the Florida Fire Chiefs’ statewide mutual aid system was processing frequent requests, moving fire department resources from county to county on a daily basis. Additional wildland resources were deployed from neighboring states under the Southern Forest Fire Compact to assist the DOF crews in rural areas.
The first crisis situation occurred between June 6th and 8th, as several new fires broke out between Jacksonville and Orlando. On June 6th, 30 structures were lost in Geneva in Seminole County. On the same day another 20 homes were lost in the Seminole Woods area of Palm Coast, in Flagler County, while all of the surrounding counties were contending with multiple outbreaks. On June 7th Governor Lawton Chiles declared a “State of Emergency” and mobilized the Florida National Guard to assist in the wildland fire fighting effort.
The number of fires continued to increase for the next two weeks. In many cases it was impossible to fully contain and overhaul the fires with the extreme weather conditions and the number of new fires that were breaking out in rapid succession. The normal tactic of knocking down the flames, then isolating the burning undergrowth by plowing around the fire, was ineffective with the drought conditions. Also, as more fires were reported, crews often had to leave fires that were contained, but not fully extinguished, and move on to attack new fires. Full control and extinguishment would only be accomplished with a change in the weather.
It was evident that the fire risk would continue to increase until a change in the weather brought higher humidity and enough rain to end the drought. This increased the level of concern for the overall situation and prompted many of the agencies to anticipate even greater problems in the following weeks. The state and county governments began to implement their emergency operations plans and experienced overhead teams from the national wildland fire fighting network were brought in to manage the operations in several areas. Fire fighting aircrafts were redeployed from several western states to join the battle in Florida.
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