Florida Everglades Wildfire scorches 33,000 acres
Pastor Dale Morgan
Florida Everglades Wildfire scorches 33,000 acres*
* Story Highlights
* Fire threatens the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, which only lives in
Everglades
* Dense smoke advisory from the National Weather Service issued for
South Florida
(CNN) -- Almost 33,000 acres of the Everglades National Park were
burning Sunday, fire officials said, the latest in a series of wildfires
that have scorched parts of Florida in May.
Smoke obscures the flames Sunday in the Everglades National Park.
The smoke cast a haze over parts of South Florida, including Miami,
prompting a dense smoke advisory from the National Weather Service.
The fire, which threatened private property as well as an endangered
bird, started Friday, the Southern Area InterAgency Management Blue Team
said.
By Sunday morning it was 20 percent contained, and fire crews were
working to restrict it to the park while protecting the Cape Sable
seaside sparrow, a federally protected species whose only habitat is in
the Everglades.
Windy conditions Sunday morning pushed the fire into the corner of the
park closest to Miami, fire officials said.
About 200 personnel battled the blaze in southern Florida Saturday
night, but more crews were expected to join them Sunday.
It is the latest wildfire to scorch Florida. More than 12,000 acres
burned in the "Brevard Complex" fire near Palm Bay, on Florida's
Atlantic Coast just south of Daytona Beach. That series of fires is
about 75 percent contained and is expected to be fully contained on
Tuesday, the National Interagency Fire Center said Sunday.
The Brevard County fires have destroyed about 22 homes and structures,
and damaged another 160 homes. Damage totals more than $9 million,
officials said.
A 19,000-acre fire near Clewiston, Florida, on the south end of Lake
Okeechobee, is about 50 percent contained, the fire center said Sunday.
And a 1,300-acre fire north of Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle was
80 percent contained by Sunday, it said.
Last week, U.S. Navy officials said a Navy jet sparked a 257-acre forest
fire in the Ocala National Forest in the north-central part of the
state. The jet had missed a target on a practice bombing run, the
officials said.