Firefighters battle rough terrain, thick vegetation to put out brush fire

A brush fire grows into 10 acres after a controlled burn jumps its boundaries. Firefighters battled rough terrain to get to the source of the fire. It all happened south of Bonita Beach Rd. and near Logan Blvd.

Within the last hour, fire crews left the scene. But they battled the fire for hours and they said the brush there created a difficult fight.

“I saw it from about 20 miles away and I said, ‘hmm, that looks like where my land is,'” Zack Davis said.

Once Davis drove down Logan Blvd. N towards Bonita Beach Rd. he found the fire.

“I’m not that far away from that burn,” Davis said.

North Collier Fire Dept. said this now 10-acre brush fire started as a controlled burn by a land clearing company. But the fire jumped the boundaries.

“We will try to get more resources out because more resources we get ahead of time and not catching up the better it is for us,” said Al Duffy, North Collier Fire, the battalion chief. “That’s faster attack on the fire.”

Fire units had a hard time getting to the fire in the preserve. They called other agencies, including the Greater Naples Fire, Bonita Springs Fire, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office for air support and Forestry for dozers. North Collier Fire said no structures or people are in danger.

“They make a path, like the path you’re seeing if that was all woods,” Duffy said. “That would be cleared out so we could get our brush trucks in there.”

Getting the brush trucks in there to help contain the fire. But also to take away trees that could burn.

“Once you start taking the fuel away, that will slow down the fire,” Duffy said. “They’ll try to get ahead of the fire cut some of those woods out, so when it gets up to there, we can make a stop.”