By Carl Mario Nudi
Bradenton Herald
Copyright 2007 The Bradenton Herald
EAST MANATEE, Fla. — With about 1,500 acres ablaze in Polk County, local forest fire prevention officials are doing everything they can to let people know about the dangerous conditions that exist in Manatee County.
To highlight their efforts, Smokey Bear is scheduled to throw out the first pitch at the Pittsburgh Pirates’ spring training game Thursday at McKechnie Field to promote Wildfire Prevention Day.
“He’s also going to hand out baseballs to the kids,” said Patrick Mahoney, spokesman for the Myakka River District of the Florida Division of Forestry.
Mahoney, a wildfire mitigation specialist, said even though conditions in Manatee County are not as severe as in other counties, there still is a potential for wildfires.
People should be aware of the dry material in nature and be careful not to start any brush or forest fires, he said.
“People just don’t realize that cigarette butts can start a wildfire,” Mahoney said.
East Manatee Fire Rescue Chief Bryon Teates agreed with Mahoney, saying although there is no “red flag” warning on burning, it is very dry in East Manatee.
“Because there hasn’t been any rain,” Teates said, “people should not be burning.”
He said his department has respond to a couple of small brush fires.
“People were burning off garbage and the fire got away from them,” Teates said. “It doesn’t take much for a fire to get away from you.”
Of the five counties in the Myakka River District - Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Hardee and DeSoto - Charlotte has the highest Keetch-Byram Drought Index number.
The KBDI is a scale of 0 to 800 used to measure the moisture in soil, with 800 being the driest.
On Tuesday, Manatee County’s KBDI was 521, while Charlotte County was at 671. Sarasota County had a KBDI of 541; Hardee, 576; and DeSoto, 590.
Mahoney said the district is at a Fire Level II, which keeps the five foresters on duty 24 hours a day, ready to respond at a moment’s notice.
Below normal rainfall has created extremely dry conditions in Manatee County, according to the National Weather Service in Ruskin.
So far this month there has only been 0.28 inches of rain measured at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. The normal rainfall for March is 3.36 inches.
“The last time it rained, it was about a quarter of an inch over March 15 and 16,” said Paul Close, a National Weather Service meteorologist. “There is no rain forecast for the next week.”
Close said the dry conditions go back to November, when rainfall was 1.25 inches below normal, and continued throughout the winter and into the spring.
Firefighters in Polk County have been battling brush fires in the River Ranch Estates area since Sunday.
Authorities have issued a voluntary evacuation for parts of southeast Polk County due to the fire.
State Road 630 is closed from Deland Avenue to Walk-In-Water Road and authorities have opened two shelters in the area.
Mahoney, from the state Division of Forestry, said his district has taken over responsibility for southern Hillsborough County to allow firefighters to assist in Polk County.
Teates said he has not received any requests for firefighters to help in Polk County, but because of the mutual aid agreements, he is ready to assist when necessary.