Florida Panhandle wildfires force evacuation from more than a thousand homes
Veterans at a nursing home were evacuated, joining residents from more than 1,000 homes, as firefighters and emergency workers battled two massive wildfires Sunday in an area of the Florida Panhandle that was still recovering from destruction caused by a category-5 hurricane more than three years ago.
The 8,000-acre Bertha Swamp Road fire and the 841-acre Adkins Avenue fire threatened homes and forced residents of at least 1,100 houses in Bay county to flee over the weekend.
The Adkins Avenue fire destroyed two structures and damaged another 12 homes late on Friday. Local emergency official said no homes were destroyed and there were no injuries on Saturday, the second day of battling the Adkins Avenue fire.
On Sunday, a third fire developed, forcing the evacuation of a 120bed, state-operated nursing home in Panama City. Public transit was being used to move the residents at the Clifford Chester Sims State Veterans’ Nursing Home.
Buses also were on standby in case the 1,300 inmates at the nearby Bay County jail needed to be evacuated to other facilities.
Local authorities said they didn’t know when residents would be able to return to their homes.
“It is NOT safe to return home at this time,” Bay county officials posted online. “Please be patient as first responders battle these dangerous fires.”
The county opened a shelter at the Bay County Fairgrounds for displaced residents.
“We understand and recognize that everyone is anxious to go back home, and that it has been a huge inconvenience,“said Valerie Sale, a Bay county spokeswoman.
The Adkins Avenue fire has been burning in Bay county since Friday, forcing the evacuation of at least 600 homes, and it was 35% contained Sunday morning.
The much-larger Bertha Swamp Fire started in neighboring Gulf county on Friday but spread to Bay and Calhoun counties on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of another 150 homes. It was 10% contained as of Sunday morning. Fire officials said Florida Forest Service helicopters had dropped more than 103,000 gallons (468,000 litres) of water on the Adkins Avenue fire since Friday, and 25 bulldozers had been deployed to plow fire lines.
“Unfortunately what we have going on today is almost a carbon copy of yesterday’s weather,” Joe Zwierzchowski, a spokesman for the Florida forest service, said on Sunday morning.
“We are looking at high, sustained winds of 10 to 15 miles per hour, gusting up to 25mph. So that’s going to make it a very dynamic situation.”
Hurricane Michael in 2018 was directly responsible for 16 deaths and about $25bn in damage in the US, and it left behind 72m tons of destroyed trees that have provided fuel for the Bay county wildfires, according to the Florida forest service.
Currently, there are nearly 150 wildfires burning more than 12,100 acres throughout Florida, and the state is only at the very beginning of its usual wildfire season.
“It is incredibly dry throughout the state and typically we see this kind of activity in the months of April and May,” Zwierzchowski said. “Seeing it in early March really gives us an indication of what the fire season is going to be like.”