Burn jumps out of control in Fla.

By Dianna Cahn
The Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)

BOCA RATON, Fla. — With winds high and humidity low, a control fire set Wednesday by the South Florida Water Management District jumped a levee, blazed out of control and engulfed 100 acres and a truck before it was extinguished.

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue said the fire along U.S. 441 and Clint Moore Road west of Boca Raton never should have been set.

"Today is a red flag day. They shouldn't have been doing any kind of burning," said Don DeLucia, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.

The red flag alert was issued by the National Weather Service, which warned that weather conditions, including high winds and humidity less than 35 percent, were ripe for easy fires. The warning was for inland Palm Beach County, west of the turnpike, and was in effect until 6 p.m.

But the district, which had obtained the necessary permits in advance, set the fire as planned Wednesday afternoon, said agency spokeswoman Julie Huber.

Government agencies often set control fires to burn off dried-out foliage and debris to ward off precisely the kind of blaze that happened Wednesday, DeLucia said.

When the fire took off out of control, it was shortly after 2:30 p.m. and county Fire Rescue, along with assistance from the state Division of Forestry, battled for hours to gain the upper hand, DeLucia said.

By then, 100 acres had burned, he said. No one was hurt, but the district lost a pickup truck to the blaze, Huber confirmed.

She was unaware, she said, that it was a red flag day, and did not respond with an explanation as to why the fire went ahead anyway.

"We will probably want to look into it and find out why they are doing a burn on a red flag day," DeLucia said. "We will have to make inquiries tomorrow. We had a lot of resources on this fire."

Those resources included truckloads of water, used to put out a fire set by the government agency that is tasked with maintaining and conserving South Florida's water supply.

"They are trying to conserve water but we are having to use hundreds of thousands of gallons to put this fire out," DeLucia said. "I am sure it's accidental, but it shouldn't have happened."