Massive Wildfires in Drought-Ridden Florida Panhandle force Thousands to Flee

Wildfires in Florida forced the evacuation of more than 1,000 homes on Sunday, including veterans in a nursing home. The Bertha Swamp Road fire engulfed 9,000 acres, while the Adkins Avenue fire covered just over 840 acres. Combined, the blazes have forced the evacuations of at least 1,100 homes in Florida’s Bay County, according to The Associated Press (AP).

As of Sunday, the Bertha Swamp Road fire was 10 percent contained and the Adkins Avenue fire was 35 percent contained, according to the Florida Forest Service. A third fire started on Sunday, prompting a 120-bed, state-operated nursing home to be evacuated in Panama City. Residents from that home were moved to the Clifford Chester Sims State Veterans’ Nursing Home, the AP reported.  As the county faces the large fires, it is still recovering from Hurricane Michael, a devastating Category 5 storm that struck in 2018, killing 16 people and causing roughly $25 billion in damage.

“I know there has been frustration with people not being able to get back into their homes,” said Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford, per the wire service. “But we have had things that have popped up on a minute’s notice and really caused problems. As soon as we can, we will let people go back.” Buses were also ready in the event of a need to evacuate Bay County Jail’s 1,300 inmates, the AP added.

It may seem odd to be having these kind of severe wildfires in the usually rain-soaked South in March. Actually, the forecast for wildland fire potential issued March 1 by the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) predicts that in March the potential for wildfires will be higher than average in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and the central and southern plains. As the NIFC states, “Most of the West, Plains, and Texas remain in drought, with abnormally dry conditions now across Florida and continuing in portions of the Carolinas. Above normal significant fire potential is forecast to expand across Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas during March and April, with lingering above normal potential forecast to remain in Florida during May.”

As for the rest of the country, according to NIFC, the now year-round fire season is just getting started.

Much of the central and southern Plains are expected to have above normal significant fire potential into April, while persisting on the High Plains and eastern slopes of the Front Range into June. Above normal potential is forecast in portions of south Texas and the Hill Country during March, with the westward retreat of above normal potential in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas following the expected green-up procession.

Most of the Southwest is forecast to have above normal significant fire potential in May and June, with potential increasing across southern and western Colorado and southern portions of the Great Basin. Central Oregon is likely to have above normal significant fire potential in May and June, with above normal potential forecast across much of coastal California by June.

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