Florida: County Line Fire grows to 35,000 acres

County Line fire smoke
Smoke from the County Line fire. Photo by Jeff Schardt

The County Line fire in northern Florida, just south of the Georgia state line, has been adding at least 5,000 acres a day for the last several days. On Thursday at 8:00 p.m. ET it was listed at 34,936 acres with 50% containment.

Map County Line Fire 2130 4-12-2012
Map of the County Line Fire 9:30 p.m. ET, April 12, 2012

The map shows the perimeter of the County Line Fire on April 12. The white dashed line is the Georgia/Florida state line.

Current Status

-Management of the County Line Fire was delegated to the Southern Area Type 2 Incident Management Team led by Incident Commander Michael Dueitt on Tuesday, April 10.

-The Osceola National Forest has an extensive prescribed fire program that helps prevent large wildfires. Due to ongoing drought conditions in Florida, the forest has been unable to burn as frequently as needed. This is not only contributing to the severity of the wildfire, but also to the amount of smoke being generated.

-The Forest Service has focused efforts this year on reducing vegetation that can fuel a wildfire not only with prescribed fire but with cutting and chopping of dense, groundcover.

-Strategic burning operations were carried out at night on the County Line Fire to take advantage of favorable weather conditions. Hand crews and equipment were working ahead of the ignition crews to strengthen the fire lines. Day time operations continued to strengthen the fire lines. Burning conditions inside the fire lines were good. Fire activity and heat were primarily on the interior of the fire, allowing firefighters the opportunity to increase confidence levels in containment lines.

Source: InciWeb

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Author: Bill Gabbert

After working full time in wildland fire for 33 years, he continues to learn, and strives to be a Student of Fire.