Florida's Burning

[Ira]

Unbelievable down here last night and today:

Brushfires all over the place--far away from Broward/Palm Beach counties, but smoke is still filling the air everywhere.

My wife told me it was horrible last night around 10, that she was almost choking when she went outside to investigate the smell.

Fortunately, I'm a drunk and fell contently to sleep at 9:30, not noticing a damn thing.

There's a lesson in here somewhere, but I don't know if it's a good lesson or a bad lesson.

[Gage]

You guys are just trying to keep up with Southern California. But it is the pits, smoke and ash every where.

[Micro469]

Hey Ira.... Think of the brush fires as camp fires... and be a good Boy Scout and help put them out......

[Sierrajack]

If you're drunk, you won't feel the flames any how.
I lived in northern Nevada for 10 years and I can tell you that brush fires are the worst kind of fire there is. They can move along the ground at over 30 MPH which is about 29 times faster than I can run. They create a firestorm which is next to impossible to put out and they eat everything in their path. California would burn and the smoke would drift well over 250 miles toward us and we were choking. Bad stuff!!

[Gage]

Here's some pictures of what we're going through last night and today. This is just one of two fires that are going right now. This one is less than 10 miles from down town L.A. It's the Griffith Park fire. No, they are not my pictures and I might add the city & county fire fighters are great.

[Podunkfla]

Yeah... Up here in N. Flada it is really getting ugly. GA is even worse with about 200 square MILES burned! No end in site either... drout conditions about as bad as they have ever had. We've been luck so far right in my neighborhood... But it could be us tomorrow everything is so dry.

[Ira]

I have to do a search to see exactly where in Collier County it's burning:

They said a state park, and I think it's where I used to own a few acres--Picayune Strand--or where I'm LOOKING to buy now--Faxahatachee.

[bledsoe3]

I have to do a search to see exactly where in Collier County it's burning:

They said a state park, and I think it's where I used to own a few acres--Picayune Strand--or where I'm LOOKING to buy now--Faxahatachee.

You may be able to pick some scorched earth cheap.

[Ira]

You may be able to pick some scorched earth cheap.

Funny you should say that:

When I bought my property at Picayune, every single pine tree had scorched bark--for miles around, basically.

They call them Scrub Pine, with foliage only way on top, and these trees have actually developed a resistance to BURNING from so many of these brush fires.

[Ira]

Yep--Picayune Strand is one of those burning big time:

http://www.nbc-2.com/articles/readartic ... 482&z=3&p=

[Woody]

Yep the smoke was god awful here the other night. It was almost like a fog at night here.

[Steve_Cox]

Cough, cough...... Lotsa fire and smoke around here in St Augustine too. That subtropical storm off the coast is causing gusting winds 20 to 30 and not dropping all that much rain.

[Ira]

HORRIBLE this morning! The worst yet!

[dhazard]

Smoked Crab tonight?

[Podunkfla]

It's bad up here... and coming our way.
223 fires in Florida!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070511/us_ ... V9pEUro0wB
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0511/p03s01-ussc.html

EDIT:I just went out for coffee... The latest is (2.22pm) that both I-10 and I-75 are closed by fires in N. central Florida... They are routing the traffic through Live Oak! Naturally, our town is shut down. Schools and many stores closed. Visibility is about 100 yards or less many places.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/12/wildfires/index.html