Wildfire Danger A Year-Round Threat

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- While the First Coast is about to enter the most critical time for preventing wildfires, experts say the danger is a year-round concern.

It only takes an errant cigarette butt to ignite roadside grass or debris, with a puff of wind to ignite a full-blown wildfire.

Just ask retiree Sam Houston, who watched a few weeks back as his neighbors along Stanton Hills Drive East nearly lost their homes.

Fire investigators believe it was a tossed cigarette on Brannan Field Road that sent flames blowing east to the closest subdivision.

A section of the wooden security fencing behind half a dozen homes was charred black, and the fire actually burned through the fencing, across a lawn and buckled one homeowners back wall.

"But luckily there was one guy that was home that alerted all the other homeowners to the fact that there's a fire outside!" said Houston.

"Everybody got their hoses, got out and started putting the fire out!"

Forestry experts say Duval County is in pretty good shape compared to the surrounding counties that are much drier this year. But even controlled or prescribed burns can get out of hand, like the one near Camp Blanding in Clay County Monday that scorched several hundred acres of brush.

"You've got to take into account all of your factors," said Annaleasa WInter of the State Division of Forestry. "Your weather, your humidity, your wind speed and direction and you've got to be very careful to follow the prescription."

"This is our dry season and it's not going to break until the end of May (or) beginning of June, possibly July so from now on we just need to be cautious with outdoor activity."

And with the most dangerous fire months ahead, safety is a concept not lost on Sam Houston and his Westside neighbors.

"It could have been worse than what it was. It was very, very close!"

To learn more about wildfire safety, you can go to the Florida Division of Forestry web site found here.

To see the Keetch Byram Drought Index (KBDI) which uses colors to show how serious a Florida County's fire danger is compared to other counties across the state, click here.

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