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Probe Finds Controlled Burn Near I-4 Pileup Done Properly

News Channel 8 file photo by PETER MASA

A "FOG SMOKE" sign sits untouched among burned vehicles after the 70-car pileup on I-4 on Jan. 9.

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By MIKE SALINERO | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 5, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - A state investigation has cleared wildlife officials who last month lost control of a prescribed burn that is said to have contributed to a 70-vehicle pileup on Interstate 4 in Polk County.

The investigation by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services concluded changing weather conditions on Jan. 8 caused the 10-acre planned burn to jump firelines and spread to hundreds of acres. The National Weather Service said the smoke combined with fog to cut visibility to nearly zero on the highway.

Five people died in the pileup and resulting fires. A homicide investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol is ongoing.

The report by the agriculture department states that an "unpredictable change in weather caused the prescribed burn to burn erratically which resulted in spot fires outside the established boundaries" of the burn.

State Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission employees conducting the burn were not guilty of criminal violations or gross negligence, according to the report.

The investigation was conducted by the Florida Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement and an independent multiple-agency team working under the state Division of Forestry. Investigators said the burn was authorized under state law and that only one element of the statute was in question: whether there were sufficient firebreaks, personnel and equipment on-site.

The investigation found six Fish and Wildlife employees, including a burn manager, were present when the fire was started, as prescribed in an agency burn plan. The crew had dug 12-foot-wide firebreaks around the fire and there were seven pieces of machinery on-site, including a 500-gallon brush truck, a 200-gallon truck, a tractor and three all-terrain vehicles. All were part of the burn plan.

The burn manager had conducted 27 controlled burns before the Jan. 8 fire. He obtained two weather reports before setting the fire. Both predicted low humidity and winds from the east and southeast that would have blown any smoke away from the highway, according to the investigative report.

About 10 a.m., before starting the fire, the burn manager did a field weather test. The humidity was 63 percent, considered in a safe zone, and the wind was out of the south-southeast at 2 to 7 mph.

But the weather began to change at 11 a.m. Winds picked up and changed direction, and the humidity dropped. Embers started a fire beyond the earthen barriers. As the Fish and Wildlife employees tried to suppress that spot, another one flared up.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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