SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Oviedo's fire chief pointed to a charred palm tree only feet from an unscathed home in the Live Oak Reserve subdivision of Southeast Seminole County, showing how close the fire came to burning down homes here.
Oviedo Fire Department Chief Lars White said officials did everything they could to save the home.
"Lot of mobility, even staff officers driving around grabbing garden hoses," White said.
White said his firefighters, together with Seminole County and the Florida Department of Agriculture's Division of Forestry, saved between 50 and 100 homes on Saturday afternoon in Live Oak using a technique called "structural triage."
"So our tactic that night was don't allow any homes to catch fire," White said.
When a house catches fire, White explained, it's very difficult to prevent neighboring houses from burning, especially ones that are situated close by. White said when one house catches, others usually follow because the materials in a home become fuel for the fire and cause it to spread quickly.
White said Monday his firefighters were reinforcing fire lines and spraying down hot spots to prevent flare-ups from jumping the fire lines around the 165 acres of conservation area and getting into other wooded areas.
"There's plenty of vegetation, plenty of fire travel for it to move, if it jumps beyond our fire lines west, that would position it close to Seminole State College, Lockwood Road, rural areas of Seminole County, incorporated areas of Oviedo Golf Course," White said.
White has positioned units and readied helicopters for water drops in case the fire does spread.
He urged homeowners to create their own fire lines around their homes to prevent a fire from flashing over from burning brush to a house.
The 100 homes that were evacuated in Live Oak Reserve back up to a large conservation area.
"It's beautiful land to look at normally, but presents a problem for us when there's a fire," White said.
White said while the woods brought the fire close, cleared backyards provided his firefighters between 50 and 100 feet of buffer between the woods and the houses.
White also suggested trimming back trees and bushes up against houses and keeping gutters clean.
If the fire had jumped from the brush to a bush up against the house, there would have been trouble.
"Yes, it would have ignited the screen enclosure, then the soffit, then moved into the attic," said White.
Melissa Fee, a resident who evacuated, thanked Chief White for saving her home.
"For me, it didn't hit me until I had my husband screaming at me to just get out," said Fee, a Live Oak homeowner. "That window is our bedroom window I opened it and looked out and saw flames, and that's when I was like, 'OK, we have to go.' We left and were driving down the road and I burst into tears and thought I'm never going to see my home again."
White said the brush fire was caused by humans, not Mother Nature, since there was no lightning this weekend. He urged people to be cautious with campfires, charcoal, cigarettes, and even hot mufflers parked on grass.
"We have what we think is a good seven to 14 days of limited rainfall. Our drought index will continue to rise," White said.