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Officials Cleared In I-4 Fire

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By MIKE SALINERO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - A state investigation has cleared wildlife officials who last month lost control of a prescribed burn that may 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 Jan. 8 caused the 10-acre planned burn to jump firelines and spread to 400 acres. The National Weather Service said smoke from the fire could have combined with fog the next morning to cut visibility on the highway to nearly zero.

Five people died in the predawn pileup and resulting fires, prompting questions about how the fire got out of control and whether the state should have held a controlled burn in the dry season less than a mile from the interstate.

The Florida Highway Patrol is conducting a homicide investigation that also will look at whether smoke from the wildfire played a part in the wrecks.

The report by the Agriculture Department's law enforcement division states those in charge of the fire followed correct procedures but that an "unpredictable change in weather caused the prescribed burn to burn erratically which resulted in spot fires."

"There does not appear to be any evidence of criminal violations or gross negligence" by those involved in the burn, investigators concluded in their report.

Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission employees conducting the burn reported that the humidity had dropped sharply about an hour after the fire was set at 10 a.m. and winds picked up, spreading the fire outside the protective earthen barriers.

"We only do a burn authorization when humidity is moderate or high and winds are light, and that's what it was when we issued it and that was the forecast for that day," said Terry McElroy, spokesman for the agriculture department. "Obviously there was a change in the weather pattern that wasn't predicted."

The National Weather Service confirms there was a drop in humidity at the fire site, but meteorologists said that could have been caused by the fire. As warm air from a fire rises, it forces drier air downward. Drier air aids the spread of fire, especially when rainfall has been sparse for a long period.

Daniel Noah, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the agency has no way of knowing whether wind speeds around the fire picked up or wind directions changed. However, Noah did not rule out that possibility.

"When you get around low-lying areas and bogs, there's such active microbiology going on, we can't observe it, much less predict it," Noah said. "When the conditions are just right, that happens."

Fish and Wildlife employees conducted the burn on the Hilochee Wildlife Management Agency north of I-4. The agency burns about 100,000 acres a year to enhance wildlife habitat and reduce the buildup of brush and undergrowth that can cause wildfires.

Prescribed fires are authorized under state law, which specifies various policies that must be followed. In this case, only one element of the statute was in question: whether there were sufficient firebreaks, personnel and equipment on-site.

"Everything we did was by the book," said Jeff McGrady, who is in charge of land management for Fish and Wildlife's southwest regional office. "We've been conducting prescribed burns for decades and there are national and state standards."

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 without incident before Jan. 8. 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.

The Agriculture Department was aided in the investigation by an independent, multiple-agency review team.

"Anybody can draw any conclusion they want, but they are serious law enforcement officers and they call it the way they see it," McElroy said. "They collected a lot of evidence, interviewed a lot of people and talked with fire experts and these are their legal conclusions."

McGrady said the wildlife agency doesn't intend to change its burn policies because of the I-4 disaster.

"We have probably 1.5 million acres our agency is in charge of managing, and a lot of the property needs prescribed fires to maintain it," McGrady said. "There is no way to burn away from highways in the state of Florida."

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

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