Dry weather sparks increase in brush fire calls

FORT MYERS, Fla. –

Florida forest service and local firefighters are seeing an increase in brush fire calls this month as a stretch of dry weather continues.

Samantha Quinn a Mitigation Specialist with the Florida Forest Service says after a wet start to the year march has quickly dried out.

“The temperatures are higher as you can tell, it’s not as cool as it normally is though because of that, it’s drying out the fields much faster so there is an increased number of wildfires that we have been going to in the month of march,” said Quinn.

Lehigh Acres Firefighters were called tonight to a small brush fire on 21st Street Southwest and Douglas Avenue South. A small patch of scorched earth left behind after firefighters battled the blaze.

The forest service says these kinds of calls will continue to climb as it remains dry. To be proactive, the forest service has begun prepping now for an active season using different mitigation techniques to make it easier to put out wildfires.

“We’ve also roller chopped the area and you can see it’s reduced the height of the palmetto,” said Quinn. “It doesn’t kill the palmetto it’s just reduced the height so intensity when a wildfire comes through is reduced.”