Workers put out hot spots in brush fire
The Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Reserve Battalion puts out hot spots on a brush fire, near Pioneer Road, on Saturday in suburban West Palm Beach.
Two suburban West Palm Beach neighborhoods were evacuated and a busy stretch of roadway was shut down Saturday afternoon as a brush fire threatened several homes.
Two homes caught fire, but the blazes were quickly extinguished and caused minimal damage, said Capt. Albert Borroto, spokesman for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office blocked Southern Boulevard from Florida’s Turnpike to U.S. 441.
Fire Rescue crews and crews from the Florida Forest Service responded shortly before 5 p.m. to a fire just off Whispering Oaks Way, south of Southern Boulevard and west of the Turnpike.
The Florida Forest Service used three tractor plows to help contain the fire, Scott Peterich, the department’s spokesman said.
It was not immediately clear how many acres were burned.
Borroto said the residents evacuating their homes were asked to turn on their sprinklers.
Wanda Wagner and her family live on Whispering Oaks Way, near where the fire occurred. She and her husband, Tom, had left home to go to their great-grandson’s birthday party. But when they returned, they found their neighborhood closed for re-entry.
Wanda, in an electric wheelchair, sat with some neighbors along Pioneer Road about 8 p.m., where the lights of emergency vehicles flickered in the distance.
She said at her son and daughter-in-law’s house, there was some roof damage.
“Not just damage from the smoke,” she said. “It’s burned some of the rooftops.”