The Mud Lake Complex of fires in Florida’s Big Cypress National Preserve continues to grow in the two weeks since it started on May 8, and has now been mapped at 35,274 acres. The Complex is comprised of approximately seven fires that are being managed by Mike Dueitt’s Type 1 Incident Management Team.
We are not certain when it was written (possibly Friday May 22) but the description below from InciWeb is a good summary of the activity on the fires:
The Ellison fire continues to back, flank and make short runs in pine stands and grass prairies, with flame lengths of 8-12 feet in palmetto. Crews continued to work on slopovers outside the MMA. The Square fire continues to show active fire behavior with backing, flanking,and short runs with flame lengths of 6 feet in short grass fuels and 8-12 feet in palmetto. Smoldering behavior was observed in cypress stringers. Tactical firing on the northwest side of the Baker cabin was planned for today. Thunderstorms over both fires caused erratic fire behavior and caused the Square fire to make a run to the northwest near the north boundary of the preserve. Both fires received measurable rain today. There was a new start (the Sanctuary fire) in the northeast part of the preserve today. Precipitation occurred in the area. Aviation resources were used today to support ground operations until thunderstorm activity entered the fire area.
In the video below, Byron Hart, the Assistant Fire Management Officer (Fuels) at Big Cypress National Preserve discusses the challenges of the Mud Lake Complex of fires. Making this video of a leader on the fire describing what is going on was an excellent idea. Teams should do this more often.
Two more videos of interviews with firefighters on the Mud Lake Complex can be found here.
Duett has an excellent team. I’m sure Big Cypress is in good hands.