VENICE (WSNN) – Lightning sparks unwanted side effects in Venice.
“I was very concerned when I saw the largeness of the smoke and all that,” Sarasota County Trail Steward Jim Cranston said.
“I was a little worried because I came outside and there was smoke everywhere and I see ashes falling down,” a worker from a shed nearby, Tyler Kenney said.
The lighting from Sunday’s storm had the Sarasota County Fire Department and the Florida Forest Service Myakka River District working three brush fires at separate locations.
“We’re the lightning strike capital of the world here, so we get lightning strikes all the time, and they cause fires all the time, so that’s not abnormal,” the Sarasota County Fire Department’s Mitigation Officer Jay Bailey said. “But, it is abnormally dry this year.”
The largest brush fire spread across 550 acres on the Carlton Reserve, Monday. It’s about 95 percent contained, as of Wednesday.
“We have had more fires and we have been in a little bit more of a dire situation this year than in at least five years,” Bailey said.
However, Bailey says the prescribed burns they did about 4 years ago in this area, kept the worst from happening.
“The intensity was relatively low,” Bailey said. “But the reason it got as large as it did, is because we didn’t take a very aggressive attack on it because it was moving so quickly. We were able to just fall back, and let it burn out some of our existing fire breaks.”
While the fire was large Cranston says he trusts the fire crews to keep him safe.
“There are a lot of good people out here, they’re very well coordinated, the radio communications are very good,” Cranston said.
No homes were affected, but it did leave some damage to a few benches and picnic tables. And a historic cabin was saved.
Since it’s still so dry, Patrick Mahoney with the Florida Forest Service says the area is still in danger of having more fires.
“If you see a lighting strike, call and report, watch it for 72 hours, cause it could go underground and burn underground.”
The other brush fires included one about 5 miles away on the same reserve about 50 acres wide and the other was on Big Slough Reserve which was about 40 acres wide. Both are close to 100 percent contained.
