Volusia County, FL - Volusia County Fire Rescue Chief Jeff Smith was on Volusia Today on Tuesday morning to provide the public with an update on the Damascus fire near State Road 44, which he says is contained, but the county's still facing a high fire risk.
Throughout the state, there is an official State of Emergency due to active wildfire situations. In Volusia County, Friday’s wildfire on SR 44 in Damascus between DeLand and Samsula raised major concerns about the risk associated with current fire conditions in the area.
Chief Jeff Smith has confirmed that the SR 44 fire is stabilized after being cut down to 215 acres total. “We had fire behavior that we haven’t seen in many, many years,” says Chief Smith. “We had flames reaching up over 100 feet tall and whenever you have something like that, it’s very dangerous to try to fight.”
There are currently concerns about dry vegetation throughout the County due to Hurricane Matthew that serves as a fuel source if it were to meet an ember carried in the recent 15 to 25 mph winds. “With those winds, and the winds have been good for us as far as keeping us cool, but they’re a detriment whenever we get into the wildfire situation that we're in currently,” says Chief Smith.
In order to combat the fire risk in the County, Volusia County Fire Rescue has been working closely with the Florida Forrest Service (FFS) to coordinate on how they approach fires. Their partnership allows for quick communication between the agencies, leading to a fast and better response. “What we’ve done is we really integrated our attacks and we communicate very closely whenever there’s a report of a fire,” says Chief Smith.
Volusia Fire Rescue is also trying to be proactive about the wildfire situation. There is a county-wide burn ban as of last week due to the lack of rain. The drought index was up to 513 on Monday, but 4 weeks ago, it dropped from the 400s to the 170s due to substantial rainfall. At least a half-inch of rain every two or three days or a day of heavy rain would drop the drought index to a safer level.
The chief points out that the best preventative technique is to control human behavior, either with the burn ban or by education. As of right now, there is no open burning except for gas grills and charcoal grills with a cover.
Chief Smith says such serious measures are being taken because conditions are similar to those in 1998 when wildfires that took 58 homes in Volusia and Flagler counties and forced the evacuation of all of Flagler county.
To protect yourself and your home from wildfires, you are encouraged to:
Chief Smith says residents should pay attention to a senate bill that would cause 2 million fewer dollars of funding for Volusia Fire Rescue in the first year due to a homestead tax exemption for an additional $25,000 per property worth $125,000. If the bill passes, it will move on to the ballot for the public to vote. Chief Smith expects that the bill would reduce funding for public safety services like ambulances, fire, and police.
More information on wildfires, safety, and prevention is available here.
Photo courtesy Toas55 and Shutterstock.com.
Copyright Southern Stone Communications 2017.
