The Associated Press
EDGEWATER, Fla. — Firefighters were able to build containment lines around a brush fire overnight, allowing residents to return Tuesday to 1,400 homes that were evacuated a day earlier.
Crews were concentrating on problem areas around Interstate 95, which remained closed Tuesday morning, said Timber Weller, a spokesman for the Florida Division of Forestry.
“They’re continuing to widen the lines and spray out the hotspots, especially focusing around 95, so hopefully we can get that stretch opened up,” he said.
Residents were allowed to return home after midnight, Weller said.
The fire started in a rural area along I-95 in Volusia County, south of Daytona Beach, then breached the highway and threatened houses as it burned about 800 acres. It was about 5 miles south of another brush fire that had forced about 1,000 residents in New Smyrna Beach to evacuate their homes last week.
Parts of I-95 have been closed intermittently for weeks because thick smoke from several fires in east-central Florida mixed with morning fog.
Wildfires have burned more than 101,600 acres in Florida since Jan. 1, according to the state Division of Forestry. That total already far exceeds the acreage burned in Florida in each of the past four years.
A state of emergency that Gov. Jeb Bush declared May 8 remained in effect, and Bush said Tuesday that the federal government had approved a request for disaster aid.
A dry spring has made the state particularly vulnerable for wildfire, Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said. “Let’s not forget we have thousands of tons of debris on the ground from eight different hurricanes. That’s causing us major problems,” he said.