The drier-than-normal dry season has increased the chance of wildfires in Florida.

“Across the state, we’re dealing with drought-like conditions,” explained David Grubich of the Florida Forest Service.

“We’re in that season change between the dry season and the wet season,” he continued. Increased wind speeds this time of year are also drying the surface of the land.

Spring also means the plants are trying to grow. “Every plant in the ground is competing for moisture.” The dry conditions lower the threshold for fire to ignite and rapidly spread.

The flood/drought/fire cycle is part of Florida’s natural ecology, he continued. “Our whole system is a fire-adaptive ecosystem. Our plants need it. Our wildlife needs it.”

He said fire burns off dry vegetation and promotes new growth. “You don’t get that 22% protein in growth unless you get new growth,” he continued. "We do a lot of range management burning. The cattle industry very much needs prescribed fire.”

While wildfires have ecological benefits, the Forest Service tries to keep fires or smoke from impacting the human population. He said they work to minimize the risk to structures and to populated areas.

If a wildfire occurs in an area needs to burn, they contain the blaze by putting a bulldozer line around it. “We minimize the risk by making that fire line wide enough,” Grubich said.

He said when the drought index is above 400, firefighters try to steer the blaze away from fried-out wetland areas. In those areas, the fire can burn down under the ground and stay there until it hits the water table, or until the wet season brings heavy rainfall.

Hendry County and Glades County are currently under burn bans. That burn ban has some exceptions, Grubitch explained. They still allow agricultural burns and environmental burns on a case-by-case basis.

The prescribed burns are conducted by professionals who have completed the training required by the Forest Service. The burn permits are issued on the day of the burn, based on weather conditions.

Citrus groves need some burns for grove maintenance, he said. Sugar cane burning is part of the dry season harvest. Some burns are also needed on cattle ranches.

Grubich said the sugar farmers mitigate the hazards to the public by burning the perimeter fields near roads or closer to structures early in the dry season. By the height of the dry season, only the interior fields remain to burn. Sugar cane fields are burned 40 acres at a time, with the Florida Forest Service issuing permits for the morning or the afternoon on the day of the burn. It takes the fire specialists less than 20 minutes to burn a 40-acre cane field.

He said the Forest Service will also continue to issue permits for environmental burns around Lake Okeechobee. “With Lake Okeechobee, you have to get it done now,” he said. “If you wait, the water level is going to rise and you won’t be able to burn.”

When Forest Service officials look at the weather conditions before they approve a burn permit, they have to mitigate the impact on the public, he explained. “You have to manage your smoke.”

He said homeowners should be aware of the dangers.

“Everything is dry,” he said. “Don’t burn yard trash. Don’t burn yard debris. Be aware. It’s dry out there.”

Even when burn bans are in place, “we still get people who will burn things and start wildfires,” he said. ‘You may walk away to answer your phone, and the next thing you know the fire has gotten away from you and it’s threatening your neighbor’s house.”

 He advised homeowners to clear away any dry brush that is within 30 feet of their home.

“Keep pine needles out of your gutters – that’s Mother Nature’s perfect fuel,” he added.

“Also ‘see something, say something.’ Early detection is key to getting these things under control,” he continued. Don’t assume someone else must have already called it in.

“We just had one in Martin County. A lightning strike fire burned for a day and a half before anyone called it in. People smelled it but no one called it in.” They assumed their neighbor was burning or that someone else must have already called it in.

“It’s dry this time of year. If there’s smoke, there’s fire,” he said.

In counties not under a burn ban, a homeowner is allowed to burn a pile of yard debris that is less than 8 feet in diameter, with required setbacks. Fires cannot be started until after 8 a.m. and must be extinquished  no later than one hour before sunset.

An outdoor burn pile must be at least:

• 25 feet from your house and/or any structure on your property,
• 150 feet from your neighbor’s house or other occupied buildings,
• 50 feet from the road,
• 25 feet from any wooded areas.

 Grubich said in Okeechobee County, homeowners can call Waste Management to pick up piles of yard debris. Under the contract with Okeechobee County, WM will collect up to 4 cubic yards bulk yard waste (about the size of a picnic table) per week.

 For counties that are not yet under a burn ban, burning a pile of debris larger 8 feet in diameter requires a burn authorization from the Florida Forest Service. You are also required to have fire suppression equipment on hand, and are required to stay with the burn until it is completely extinguished.

The following counties had enacted burn bans as of April 18: Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Highlands, Lake, Lee, Orange, Polk Sarasota, Seminole and Volusia. 

The Florida Forest Service website, https://www.fdacs.gov/Forest-Wildfire/Wildland-Fire/Current-Wildfire-Information has an online  map showing active wildfires.

According to the Florida Climate Center,  an examination of weather records since 1900 shows every decade has at least one severe, widespread drought in Florida. Droughts that began in 1906, 1927, 1945, 1950, 1955, 1961, 1968, 1980, 1984, 1998, 2006, and 2011 were the most severe.