Flagler the Fire County of Florida

Driving to work in the morning from western Flagler County in Florida, a dense blanket of smoke reminded me of the misery I experienced almost ten years ago. In 1998, wild fires in the county rained ashes on cars. During that time, the Emergency Operation Center administered a County-wide evacuation. Residents of the entire county had to pack up and leave their homes and jobs for an uncertain amount of time.

A co-worker of mine told me that she had just moved here from up north in 1998. She had been accostomed to hearing the emergency broadcast signal on television, but it was always a test. She said that when she heard it was not a test in the summer of 1998, she panicked. She had heard of people putting water sprinklers on their homes to help protect them from fires, and being new to the area with a brand new home, she thought she had best head their advice. She packed her things, got her daughter read, and up the ladder she went to plant a water sprinkler on her roof. In the chaos, she nearly broke her ankle having had a mishap on the ladder. With blood running down her foot, she ran to her neighbor's house to ensure the news of impending danger was not ignored. At the end of it, and after having fled to Georgia, she was very lucky.

According to Floridadisaster.org, 337 homes and 33 businesses were lost, along with over 500,000 acers of land during the 1998 wildfires.

Today, as I wash dried ash off my car and listen to the news of the latest fire affecting Flagler County, I tell myself to prepare for the worst. The fires of 1998 started in June into July. It's only May, and we are already experiencing some horrific drought. The spittle of rain we are currently seing from a westerly moving system provides very little reprieve to the land that is so dry, one can water a plant for an hour only to find dirt as dry as powder just beneath the surface.

As of right now, the Airport Road Fire, named for its proximity to a road near the Flagler/Volusia Conty border, is 50% contained, according to a Flagler County Emergency Operations public announcement. While this fire is under control, County officials, in a local public broadcast on Flagler County Television advise residents to take this fire as a warning to be prepared for future fires. Surely, residents who have weathered the fires of 1998 will not underestimate the power of that advice.