Florida's growing wildfire problem

As more homes are built in rural areas, the options for controlled burns to eliminate brush are limited.

By Amy Green | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the May 11, 2007 edition

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Orlando, Fla. - In 40 minutes, Betsy Breeding and her husband grabbed what they could, and with ash raining down, they loaded up their truck and Jeep and fled their home of 23 years.

"We knew [the fire] was getting close, so we just kind of moved as quickly as we could," said Ms. Breeding, who relocated to a shelter with her husband as wildfires crept closer to their house.

The couple lives in unincorporated Taylor, west of Jacksonville. It's a rural area, and in recent years, says Breeding, more people have moved in. At the same time, she's noticed fewer controlled burns to clear the area of dry brush that can serve as kindling.

As wildfires have burned hundreds of thousands of acres across Florida and Georgia this week, the potential ramifications of more residents in rural, wooded areas – along with fewer controlled burns – have become more apparent.

Florida in particular has undergone an explosion in population – a growth of about 13 percent between 2000 and 2006. This has meant that more and more people are pushing into rural areas. In dry weather conditions, such regions can be rife with dry, crackling brush – ideal kindling for a wildfire sparked by a bolt of lightning, discarded cigarette butt, or another trigger.

In years past, foresters worked hard to clear this brush with controlled burns. Now, however, with more homes in these areas, the options for intentional burns are more limited.

"We call that the wild land/urban interface problem – where wild lands meet the homes," says Rose Davis, spokeswoman for the National Interagency Fire Center, an organization based in Boise, Idaho, that coordinates government agencies and allocates resources for various regions. "Not only does that impact where we can do prescribed fires and thinning, but it also impacts our fire costs. If we have to protect communities and homes, that is increasingly expensive."

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