Southwest Florida Water Management District runs controlled burns in Hillsborough County
TAMPA, Fla. - With some gas and a spark, the Southwest Florida Water Management District took it upon themselves to light the tinderbox at the wilderness preserve in eastern Hillsborough County.
"If we burn it first, then the likelihood of a wildfire erupting goes down exponentially," said Mark Maggard, the land management director of SWFMD.
Tuesday's plan was to burn 60 acres that they then penned in using bulldozers.
As Tampa Bay has been deprived of its usual frequency of afternoon storms, the fear is that a wildfire could quickly threaten homes or businesses.
READ: 30 acres burned in Egmont Key brush fire, officials say
Manatee and Sarasota counties are in drought conditions. In their 16-county area, they burn 40,000 acres a year.
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"We plan these things out months and months in advance," said Maggard.
"There's a lot of weather parameters that we have to take into consideration long before we can ever light a match to the ground."
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While wildfires in Hawaii, California and Canada have recently burned out of control, including this week in Hawaii, where at least 99 people have been confirmed killed, land management officials do not foresee that kind of catastrophe here.
"We have a rich history of prescribed fire," said Maggaard. "And I think it's reflected in how things behave here when wildfires break out. Well, I'm not going to say we have zero wildfires, but you don't see the intensity here as you would in other areas."