See more photos of the brush fire

By CARA FITZPATRICK and JASON SCHULTZ

Palm Beach Post Staff Writers


Climbing up vines and jumping canals, 10 separate fires have burnt through about 2,000 acres in three days in Martin County. Storms dropped four inches of rain on the flames, but did little to quench the wildfire danger in the county, officials said tonight.


The fires, most of which are in western Martin County in or near Indiantown, destroyed two homes and threatened many more, causing the evacuation of some residents Monday, authorities said.

Red Cross spokesman Sam Yates said two people showed up at the shelter in Stuart Monday night and the shelter will not be open tonight.


The Red Cross has a crew in Indiantown that has served about 1,000 meals and snacks to firefighters and Indiantown residents during the fire, Yates said. The Red Cross has not received any requests for housing assistance from residents affected by the fire, he said.


Firefighters and residents, initially facing hot, dry conditions today, prepared this morning for what’s known as the “witching hour,” when temperatures rise and relative humidity drops midday, causing seemingly subdued fires to grow in strength.


“I am extremely worried about this afternoon,” said Melissa Yunas, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Forestry. “That’s when we’re going to see a lot more fires.”


Forestry officials brought three planes and three helicopters to drop hundreds of gallons of water on the blazes, helping firefighters from multiple agencies.


Residents of Indianwood, a mobile home community for ages 55 and up, got a taste of the “witching hour” Monday when what appeared to be a dormant fire sprung up and over a nearly dry canal, consuming one house and hitting several others.


“It was real calm and then the wind shifted and blew the embers up,” said Roxie Smith, a nurse who lives in the community.


Mel Smith, her husband and a retired firefighter, said the smoke was so thick it was impossible to see more than 10 feet and the “tremendous” heat melted vinyl siding on the homes nearest the fire.

Residents, many of them elderly or disabled, were terrified, trying both to fight the fire with hoses and evacuate.


“People were running for their lives really,” he said.


Eileen Berry, 80, said she became “near hysteric” when she saw the flames and realized that her husband, Charles, with his limited mobility, might be unable to escape if the fire moved toward their home.


“It about scared me half to death,” she said.
Booker Park resident Thelma Waters said one of the first fires started near her neighborhood and threatened several homes. Late Monday the fires near Booker Park flared up again.


“It was close enough to my house that I could see it,” Waters said, adding that she felt more comfortable after the rain the area received today. “But it’s out now and that’s a blessing from God.”


In a report tonight, Yunas said the four inches of rain did not help with one of the fires because it was not enough to penetrate into the burning roots.

The storm also compromises several fire breaks, or roads plowed through the brush by firefighters to contain the wildfire’s spread, Yunas said.

Crews planned to work tonight to re-establish perimeters around the wildfires in Martin County.


“The chance of rekindling is good within the next couple of days if rainfall doesn’t continue within the week,” Yunas said in the report. “With the storm, we received several lightning strikes and there is concern for more ignitions into the week.”


Martin County Fire Rescue is continuing to extinguish hotspots.

Also Monday evening, Yunas said, crews were fighting a 100-acre blaze east of the Martin County Landfill near Palm City. That fire, which is on farm land owned by the Kiplinger family that publishes several national financial newsletters and magazines such as Kiplinger Personal Finance, was about 80 percent contained as Tuesday evening, Yunas said.


The Palm City fire was believed to be caused by lightning, she said.


A Martin County Sheriff’s deputy was also injured Monday when she lost control of her cruiser while responding to the fires in Indiantown.
Deputy Rebecca Brady, 39, crashed her cruiser on State Road 76, also known as Kanner Highway, near Indiantown, said Martin County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Rhonda Irons.


Brady, who has been with the department for five years, was flown to St. Mary’s Medical Center in stable condition with injuries not believed to be life threatening, Irons said.


Sheriff’s investigators believe bad weather contributed to the crash.


 ~jason_schultz@pbpost.com

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 10:56 am and is filed under Indiantown, Martin County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.