ORLANDO, Fla. — After Central Florida had been dealing with some dry weather conditions over the course of the month, some burn bans are being lifted.
What You Need To Know
- Some burn bans have been lifted after rain swept through Central Florida in recent days
- Florida Forestry officials warn that wildfire risks remain high despite recent rain
- They are concerned with Memorial Day coming up, knowing people will set up fireworks, grill and start bonfires
Volusia, Osceola, Seminole and Brevard counties have lifted their bans on open burning.
Orange, Lake, Sumter, and Flagler counties all still have burn bans in effect.
However, the Florida Forestry Service is warning that the area is out of the woods just yet. At their Orlando District Headquarters, they had the fire danger listed as high on Tuesday.
While Fire Mitigation Specialist Cliff Fraizer explained the recent rainfall has helped them tremendously with keeping fires at bay, it hasn’t been enough to eliminate the threat.
In fact, he said this is the busiest they have been since 2017.
He said a task force of rangers from North Florida are down helping them as crews around the area are stretched thin.
“We've been active, real active. That's how come we had to call a task force in,” said Frazier. “We were running fires three or four fires a day, you know, and I mean, constantly going.”
The rainfall over the last few days has helped, but he explained it was not enough to completely snuff out the risk.
“I mean, we have the high wind gusts right now,” said Frazier. “We have the dry duff layers. It rains, yes, it rained, but the duff layers are still dry, you know, because of the drought that we were in.”
Frazier warns that activity could soon spark up again if people are not cautious.
“Just because a burn ban has been lifted doesn't mean it's safe to burn out there because any spark can cause a catastrophic wildfire,” said Frazier.
Frazier shared he is very concerned with Memorial Day being right around the corner, knowing people will set up fireworks, grill and start bonfires. He said because of this, they are beefing up their staffing.