OKEECHOBEE COUNTY — When an 11-foot alligator leaped out of the water and clamped down on his arm and chest, Antonio Prado was caught by surprise.

Prado was dragged under the water by the alligator, which bit him on his arm and chest.

“I had been there (to Nubbin Slough on Lake Okeechobee) casting my (fishing) net many times,” said Prado, 47, from his room in Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce. “I had seen alligators and they never bothered me.”

Prado of Okeechobee, is a truck driver. On his day off Monday, he went fishing with his son, Jonatan, 24, in Nubbin Slough.

“(The alligator) was on the side of the water, when I went in. He went in too,” Prado said. “I didn’t think about it because others had done the same. I threw in my net. When I pulled it up, he came out of the water. He pulled me under the water and we rolled around twice before I could get to the surface to call for help.”
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INDIANTOWN — Wildfires had consumed more than 2,000 acres in Martin County by Tuesday morning, and firefighters were working to contain the fires that were burning for a third day, officials said.

There were as many as 10 fires that firefighters had to contend with late Monday and overnight, according to Melissa Yunas, spokeswoman for the state Division of Forestry.

Three single-engine air tankers were called in late Monday to battle the main fire that threatened the Indianwood mobile home community, according to Melissa Yunas, spokeswoman for the state Division of Forestry.
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VERO BEACH — About 98 percent of registered nurses at Indian River Medical Center rejected a new contract and notice will be sent to hospital officials that nurses will picket or go on strike at 7 a.m. Jan. 24, nurses union spokesman Steve Myers said Wednesday.

The nurses’ contract, which was rejected on Wednesday evening by Teamsters Local 769, the union that represents the hospital’s 467 registered nurses, would have added about $500,000 to IRMC’s budget. (more…)