- May 13, 2024
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Local fire departments and Florida Forest Service wildland firefighters work to contain a 60-acre wildfire near Ormond Beach Thursday evening. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Local fire departments and Florida Forest Service wildland firefighters work to contain a 60-acre wildfire near Ormond Beach Thursday evening. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Local fire departments and Florida Forest Service wildland firefighters work to contain a 60-acre wildfire near Ormond Beach Thursday evening. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Local fire departments and Florida Forest Service wildland firefighters work to contain a 60-acre wildfire near Ormond Beach Thursday evening. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Florida Forest Service wildland firefighters and local fire departments contained a 130-acre wildfire in the area of Clyde Morris Boulevard, south of Hand Avenue, by 11 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9.
The fire was not a prescribed burn, said Julie Allen, wildfire mitigation specialist for the Florida Forest Service, the agency which led the wildfire response. The agency is continuing to improve containment lines around the impacted area on Friday, Feb. 10.
"Now that it is safe to do so, we will have our wildland firefighters out here seeing if they can determine a cause of this fire," Allen said.
According to the Florida Forest Service's Facebook page, the fire was first reported as a 15-acre fire in the afternoon and later in the evening as a 60-acre fire. Firefighters were able to protect 75 homes — the wildfire occurred close to the rear of the Cypress Trail and Birchwood subdivisions off Clyde Morris Boulevard — with seven dozers, two brush units and local fire departments on the scene. Police and fire from Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach and Volusia County Fire Rescue aided in the suppression efforts.
Some claims circulated on social media that the wildfire was a result of a prescribed burn, where officials intentionally set fire to a controlled area to help improve or maintain the natural habitat.
"This was definitely a wildfire," Allen said, adding that the priority of the agency was to protect the homes nearby.
This is the second fire in the area this week. Two fires burned about 28 acres of land between Cypress Trail Drive and Oak Street near Ormond Beach on Monday,
Feb. 6. Those fires, however, have been determined to be human-caused, Allen said.
"However, we do not know if it was accidental or purposeful," Allen said. "So our agriculture law enforcement and our local law enforcement are investigating the cause of that."
Florida is a fire dependent ecosystem, Allen said.
