As evening rush hour traffic built Wednesday, April 15, on Waldo Road, a towering black column of smoke rose to the northeast. Sparked by an unknown origin, the State Road 26 fire was already at 10 acres when reported, and spread to around 400 acres that evening before firefighters headed off the blaze and got it 30% contained.
The fire made it to within three miles of the Austin Cary Forest (ACF) before personnel with the Florida Forest Service, U.S. Forest Service, Alachua County Fire Rescue, and the Melrose and Windsor fire departments stopped its forward progress. The 2,600-acre Austin Cary Forest is a teaching forest, or “living laboratory” for faculty, staff, and students at UF.
Prescribed fires are part of the management and instructional use of the forest, but wildfires are a different matter. Fortunately, the fire — as it stands now — poses no threat to structures or to ACF.
“There’s not much the staff of the forest can do when a wildfire threatens,” said Scott Sager, assistant director for the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences (SFFGS) and forester for ACF. “We open gates, turn on sprinklers around buildings, and generally try to be useful while staying out of the way.”
Good management of the forest mitigates the chances and potential spread of a wildfire within it.
“Most of our efforts at wildfire management are in the months (and) years before it happens,” Sager said. “We try to keep fuel loads manageable, mostly through prescribed burning, but depending on the stand conditions and objectives we also use mowing or mulching, or broadcast herbicide.”
The Waccasassa Forestry Center of the Florida Forest Service announced in a Thursday, April 16, morning update that the State Road 26 fire, “is still 400 acres and 30% contained as of this morning. Crews will conduct a more accurate mapping today so those numbers may change as the day progresses.…
“The (U.S. Forest Service) air tankers made six retardant drops, and the helicopters made 22 bucket drops totaling 22,000 gallons of water.”
Ludie Bond, the public information officer for the Waccasassa Forestry Center, is updating the public on the fire response. She earned her doctorate from SFFGS last year.
Later in the morning, Florida Forest Service and St. Johns River Water Management District personnel brought out heavy equipment to widen and reinforce containment lines. Experts predicted an active wildfire season for Florida this year, which is bearing out, especially with widespread drought.
“This year’s fire season is likely to be severe,” Sager said. “Please be careful, and thank a firefighter — especially the folks with the Florida Forest Service.”
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