Hillsborough County holds prescribed burn as part of year-round wildfire prevention efforts
TAMPA, Fla. - Environmental specialists in Hillsborough County say wildfire prevention in Florida is a year-round job.
An environmental specialist in Hillsborough County set fire to brush during prescribed burns.
They say it’s particularly important during the dry season, which runs from about November to March.
Dry season preparations
What we know:
Hillsborough County crews say they do 70 to 80 prescribed burns throughout the county every year.
Prescribed fires burning in Hillsborough County.
"This is a fire-dominant area," Mike Jones, an environmental specialist with Hillsborough County, said.
On Wednesday, crews held a prescribed burn on a little more than 100 acres of land in Wimauma.
"In doing so, we also are preventing a chance of a major wildfire in the area," Jones said.
Jones says prescribed burns are a proactive way to help keep a potential wildfire from burning out of control.
Prescribed fires burning in Hillsborough County.
"A prescription for a fire is just like a prescription that you have for medical concerns," Jones said. "We look at the unit, what it needs. We write a prescription to meet those objectives."
Hillsborough's plans for dry season
Big picture view:
These prescribed burns take months of planning.
"We have a holding crew," Jones said. "We have ignition crews. We've came and prepped all the lines, got them cut back with chainsaws and mowed the lines."
Jones says these burns protect the land and everything around it.
"To reduce the fuel loading in these areas so that when there is a wildfire, it's easier for forestry to stop the fire," he said.
He says "fuel" is anything that could fuel a bigger fire, like gasoline, furniture or brush and vegetation.
Why prescribed burns are important
Why you should care:
On Wednesday, crews burned brush and vegetation in the contained area.
"If we don't burn it, it's going to burn one way or the other, whether it's through arson, campfires, we have a lot of lightning strike fires," Jones said.
If prescribed burns are done on land like this every three to five years, if there is a fire, Jones says it will burn slower and will be much easier to contain.
"Not burning is going to make it worse," he said.
The county says prescribed burns are also heavily dependent on the weather, especially wind conditions.
Crews monitored the burn on Wednesday to make sure the smoke and flames dissipated safely.
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