• Welcome to the FREE TUGBBS forums! The absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 31 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    All subscribers auto-entered to win all free TUG membership giveaways!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Florida fires?

A

anniemac

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2005
Messages
206
Reaction score
0
Location
Indiana
We're heading south to Daytona next Friday. I caught a little blip on CNN about wildfires burning out of control in the area. Has I-95 been closed?
Anyone near enough to the situation to tell how it might alter our plans? (Of course, it's ironic that you don't want rain on your vacation but now I hope for some to relieve the folks in Florida.)
 
The area was closed to remove trees that threatened to fall onto the highway(shallow roots and partially burned). That removal was supposed to be completed sometime today, and I 95 reopened!
 
anniemac said:
We're heading south to Daytona next Friday. I caught a little blip on CNN about wildfires burning out of control in the area. Has I-95 been closed?
Anyone near enough to the situation to tell how it might alter our plans? (Of course, it's ironic that you don't want rain on your vacation but now I hope for some to relieve the folks in Florida.)
Click to expand...
I am a little concerned about it as well as I will be heading to Orlando next Friday. I understand they have closed I-95 for a short section from Daytona south a few times over the last couple weeks or so. The turn to Orlando is north of this area but it would be easy to see that there could be traffic jams in this.
 
I am a Firefighter in Florida and last March and April was the 5th driest March and April on record. Add on top of that all the natural vegetation debris that was knocked down in last years storms and a pretty large fuel load becomes available to burn.

In the last month I-95 south of Daytona in the Volusia/Brevard County areas have been speriodically opened and closed to due smoke conditions from nearby fires. Same for portions of I-75 south of Tampa. Other fires throughout the state have temporarily closed other roads in the state.

Even after a fire passes through an area, the threat of large dead pines on the side of the road falling into the roadway is a concern. The previous poster was correct in saying that a portion of I-95 was recently closed to remove these trees.

Most of these delays are temporary but most of the state is under a "red flag warning" due to the increased likelihood of fires, nothing like the wildfires of 1998 is expected however.

June 1 marks the begining of the Hurricane/rainy season and thus the end of the wildfire season.

Enjoy!
 
Last edited:
wcfr1 said:
I am a Firefighter in Florida and last March and April was the 5th driest March and April on record. Add on top of that all the natural vegetation debris that was knocked down in last years storms and a pretty large fuel load becomes available to burn.

!
Click to expand...

WCFR1: Many, many thanks for the job you all have had to do down here this year with all the fires we've had. I don't know what we would do without you guys and gals. I believe Lehigh's fires on the 6th had about 34 different units to fight them all. Yes, we lost 16 homes, but many, many more were saved by the firefighters. God Bless you.
 
Lou, Thanks for your work! It's amazing how quickly the fires in Florida spread! We've been fancinated by the new fire-fighting heliocopter in Sarasota County. It looks strange flying overhead, but must be a big help in fighting these brush fires.
 
We are getting a nice rain in Winter Haven this AM!
 
We've had a good slow rain since about 10 last night. This will knock down the brush fire hazzard for about a week if we don't have any more.
A couple of weeks before the Lehigh Acres fire, we had a fire that burned almost 400 acres in our neighborhood. Locals in the SW Florida area saw it on the news. It was a windy day and sparks were flying, right towards us. The closest flare up was three streets away. The people living on the street behind me, across the canal, were told to evacuate. It was much too close for comfort. I know what the worry of a fire feels like. I can only image how much worse it is to actually have your house destroyed by a brush fire.
 
It is raining in Vero Beach now, we are at the Disney's Vero Beach Resort and loving it. It rained some last night and has rained most of the afternoon so far, today. Should help prevent the wild fires.
 
Thanks for the kind words but there are many more deserving people out there. Be sure to thank the next soldier, sailor or airmen you meet.

Yes, Florida is getting some rain today but fires still continue across the state. 400 acres burned in Polk County yesterday and another 800 in Volusia. A 12 mile stretch of southbound I-95 between Edgewater and Port Orange and a 5 mile stretch of Northbound I-95 between Edgwater and New Smyrna has been closed by the Florida Highway Patrol indefinetly due to the smoke conditions mixing with the morning fog. At least 1,400 homes have been evacuated because of this fire that has jumped across the Interstate.

These conditions have caused dozens of accidents in the state with at least 4 deaths being linked to crashes that were casued by smoke/fog obscuring the road.

According to the Florida Division of Forestry, more than 2,500 fires have burned more than 101,600 acres in Florida since Jan. 1.

Gov. Busch declared a state of emergency on May 8 and deployed avaition units from the Florida National Guard to help fight the fires.

The good news is that today's rains should help and that the majority of the fires have been in rural areas. While the closure of I-95 is an inconvenience, other North/South arteries are still open.

The rains aren't supposed to last long but every bit helps.

I love the country and live in the woods myself, but others must realize like myself that this setting means minimal fire protection in the area and this type of danger comes with the territory. Just the price of living outside the "big city".

So far most tourist areas are unaffected. Just wish we could get some of New England's rains.
 
Thank goodness for RAIN.
We just bought a house in Ft Myers and was wondering about the hurricanes. I did not realize we had to worry about the wild fires.

I will say a prayer for all of you in the area to be safe.
Kisses to all
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top