Fire in Topsail Hill State Park

Obviously, from mof2k's post, I'm wondering, too. I see the smoke & luckily a good friend called and told me what was happening. I have done searches online, to no avail.

All the SWFD told me when I just called was that "We have crews on scene."

There are 2 photos up and running on front page of Walton Sun. www.waltonsun.com

Wildfire at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park


Photo courtesy Kelly Roe.

A large brush fire is raging at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park. As of 3:55 p.m. South Walton Fire District, the State Park and the Division of Forestry are working on containing the fire. The fire is approximately 100 acres, and according to SWFD Deputy Chief, Sean Hughes, should be contained soon.
At approximately 1:45pm today the SWFD received a call of a tree on fire in the vicinity of the Hwy. 98 and CR 30A intersection. It is believed that the dead tree fell across some power lines and ignited. Fire District crews arrived to find approximately 1 acre on fire, spreading quickly due to strong winds.
The Division of Forestry (DOF) was requested to respond and is currently on scene with four tractors battling the fire. At this time the fire is contained within the boundaries of the park and no structures are threatened.

Are any residential houses in danger? Has anyone been evacuated?

When I went to pick up the kids from school (2pm), the fire was raging with lots of flames. Lots of fire trucks were on scene and lots of smoke. When I came back from doing kid pickup (3pm), the weren't any flames, just lots of smoke. It's not near any houses or other buildings. Seems like the SWFD had it under control. There were traffic backups on 98 heading east. The fire was on the south side of 98 just off the road.

When I went to pick up the kids from school (2pm), the fire was raging with lots of flames. Lots of fire trucks were on scene and lots of smoke. When I came back from doing kid pickup (3pm), the weren't any flames, just lots of smoke. It's not near any houses or other buildings. Seems like the SWFD had it under control. There were traffic backups on 98 heading east. The fire was on the south side of 98 just off the road.

YUP. I was one of those cars stuck in traffic. A lot of rubber-necking as you went past the firefighters !!

Thanks for the info!

Wow - even with all of the rain we've had? So sorry for this news!

Mr. Clean just rode by it on the way to work. Of course, he was not very interested in the fire when I was telling him about it earlier, but now he's in awe at how far along the road it goes. He said there are still flames right now. It's just before 6pm.

There are a few trees over on that side that we've been commenting on how they need to be cut down before something bad happens.

Wow - even with all of the rain we've had? So sorry for this news!

This end of the beach has had very little. Even when it was a crazy downpour in Seaside on Sunday, it was little to nothing over here.

Fires ignite, spread with high winds | winds, fires, destin - News - Northwest Florida Daily News

Hours after a dead pine tree fell Wednesday along U.S. Highway 98, firefighters in South Walton County were plowing into the woods to put down a wildfire that burned through 100 acres at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park.
The flames, one said, "just took off running."

And in Destin, where a 10-foot-tall pile of brush and clippings ignited behind Big Kahuna's water park, the wind sent smoke billowing over firefighters and U.S. 98.

No injuries were reported, but it was shaping up to be a long day at both sites.

"The embers are flying and catching the woods on fire and it's rapidly pushing deeper into the woods," South Walton Deputy Fire Chief Sean Hughes said of the flames at Topsail Hill on County Road 30A.

"In this case, if there's anything fortunate about it ... it is in wide-open land."

The fire ignited about 2 p.m., after a tree fell into a roadside power line. As firefighters put out those flames amid high winds, Hughes said they could see the woods also were about to ignite.

By early Wednesday evening, firefighters were deploying nine plows in Topsail's woods to contain the fire. Hughes said they had trouble in some swampy areas but planned to watch the site overnight.

The blaze behind Big Kahuma's also presented problems.

Destin Fire Chief Kevin Sasser said the debris pile, at about 150 feet long and 20 feet wide, was "on fire from one end to another" when firefighters arrived. They planned to tear it down because brush was burning deep within the pile. (Click here to see photos from the scene.)

The cause was unclear. It was possible that so much mulch packed over time could spontaneously ignite, Sasser said.

The wind out of the north was "feeding the fire quite a bit," Sasser said - away from neighboring town homes but straight toward firefighters and the rear of Big Kahuna's.

Workers at Big Kahuna's went through the park looking for smaller fires in case embers blew onto the property.

Okay so was this ten (10) acres or one hundred (100) acres?

The Sun is reporting 100 acres and the news (Channel 7 NBC) is reporting 10.

I sure hope we get some rain before the weekend when the tourists will be showing up with their fireworks. Woods here in Seagrove are very dry.

ABC and Channel 13 is running the story on the Topsail Hill Preserve State Park fire this am. Greg Sherrod, anchor, did a great job of mentioning South Walton several times. I had just tuned in at 6 a.m. and missed the beginning of the story and how many acres. Will have to watch again at 6:30 a.m.

Me & hubby were sitting out in the yard having an early cocktail, cloud watching, enjoying the breeze under the trees yesterday when all of a sudden, the clouds turned brown, then black!
I walked out to the street to get a better look and knew it was a big fire. Hubby drove out to 98, came back and told me to grab the camera and go. I had already called Lori (because Walton Outdoors is the source for everything outdoors) to inquire if there was a report of a wildfire.
Traffic was at a standstill going East. The fire was raging in the winds, and to see how high the flames were was frightening to me to say the least. So grateful it was on the other side of 98 and didn't threaten any structures.

P.S. Nice photo! ;-)

I sure hope we get some rain before the weekend when the tourists will be showing up with their fireworks. Woods here in Seagrove are very dry.

Praying for some SERIOUS rain. Didn't even think about the tourists on a holiday weekend...

okay so was this ten (10) acres or one hundred (100) acres?

The sun is reporting 100 acres and the news (channel 7 nbc) is reporting 10.

100;-)

Betcha that the state will somehow use this as yet another reason to close the US 98 entrance into the park permanently.

Aren't they already doing that with some stimulus money?? I don't understand why it costs so much money to close a road. Just close it.

The only thing they would really need to spend anything on would be taking out the pit toilet and doing any related environmental clean-up. As for the rest, there used to be a second entrance to the park off US 98, and when they wanted to shut that down, all they did was lock the gate and let nature do the rest.

What's the big deal of closing the 98 entrance? It seems dangerous as hail.

What's the big deal of closing the 98 entrance? It seems dangerous as hail.

I know quite a few locals that use it. Never have myself, as peddling up to the main entrance is easy for us.

What's the big deal of closing the 98 entrance? It seems dangerous as hail.

We use it all the time to hike around the lakes and go to the beach.

The 98 entrance was a perfectly safe dirt road every time we drove it. And once you parked, there were a couple of very nice nature trails if you wanted to hike, and the parking was significantly closer to the beach than it is at the 30-A entrance so you didn't have to deal with the whole tram/hot asphalt walk to the beach.

Plus, it was pretty much semi-private. Huge, huge stretch of beach, and you'd never really see more than 10 cars at that lot. All the times we've gone to the park in 10+ years, we've used the 30-A entrance once and the 98 entrance every other time.

What I meant by dangerous was the cold stop with no light pulling onto an extremely busy road.