the burns are great as long as they're kept under control. i'm reminded of the one west of western lake a few seasons ago, and last year's south of 98 between 395 and 283. these two were seemingly under their own control.
Fire in Seagrove
- Thread starter Matt J
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The residential area in Seagrove which was burning, was very fortunate on that day. I don't recall reading the behind the scenes story of the US Forestry Dept's DC3 which seemed to appear on the Seagrove scene within minutes, from the start of the fire, even though it was coming from far away in Florida. What most people don't know is that the DC3 was already in flight to the 3280 (Freeport) fire, when EOC contacted them. The plane dumped only half of their load on the 3280 fire, which helped the firefighters in that area greatly, as they were getting creamed by the blaze. After dropping half their load in Freeport, the pilots of the DC3 headed to Seagrove and dumped the remainder of the load, likely saving the remainder of the homes. Firefighters in Freeport waited a few hours for the plane, and the firefighters in Seagrove waited only minutes. Call it luck on an unfortunate day.
South Walton County is the #1 "tinder box" in the state. Prepare for numorus prescribed burns this season.
I want to applaud the Forestry Dept for doing prescribed burns, as I think they are extremely beneficial, and if it weren't for man, fires would naturally spark on occasion. When man builds homes and prevents natural fires in order to protect homes (nothing wrong with that), fuel sources will build up on the forest floor, and when a fire does break out, it will be out of control and ironically, the homes which man was trying to protect, will burn. Prescribed burning burns up that fuel source on a regular basis so that fires can become more manageable when they do occur.
About ten years ago, I was hiking in Colorado for a few weeks, near Leadville, Snowmass, Aspen, etc. At some of the lower elevations, the forest floor was covered in hundred year old trees lying down (potential fuel source for fires). I think it took me about 10 hours of hiking to travel only a couple of miles when I was climbing over huge fallen trees, carrying a 60# pack. It occurred to me that all of the Smokey preventing forest fire commercials, may not be such a great thing. Fires need to happen frequently enough, so that they burn up the smaller fuel source, rather than stockpiling the fuel for the fire that takes out most of the western USA.
About ten years ago, I was hiking in Colorado for a few weeks, near Leadville, Snowmass, Aspen, etc. At some of the lower elevations, the forest floor was covered in hundred year old trees lying down (potential fuel source for fires). I think it took me about 10 hours of hiking to travel only a couple of miles when I was climbing over huge fallen trees, carrying a 60# pack. It occurred to me that all of the Smokey preventing forest fire commercials, may not be such a great thing. Fires need to happen frequently enough, so that they burn up the smaller fuel source, rather than stockpiling the fuel for the fire that takes out most of the western USA.
The fire danger in Colorado is even worse now because the pine beetle is killing huge areas of forest! There are now entire mountainsides of dead trees. The fire danger is not helped by people who won't comply with recommendations to trim trees and brush around their homes and the constant building of condos w/ evacuation routes that cannot even begin to handle the volume (sound familiar?).
Well I did see them last year trying to do the area north of Publix but we had had alot of rain and they couldnt get it or the one of Bay drive to hardly burn. I would imagine those 2 areas will be on the list again this year. I shudder to think what would happen if they didnt do these burns.
There are several burning today. Saw one towards Niceville and the one in Seagrove.