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Wildlife Officials Defend Timing Of Controlled Burn

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By MIKE SALINERO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 10, 2008

Updated: 01/10/2008 12:11 am

The controlled burn blamed by some for contributing to one of the worst traffic disasters in Polk County history on Wednesday was conducted under treacherous conditions.

A yearlong drought combined with a recent freeze dried the undergrowth in the Hilochee Wildlife Management Area into fire-ready kindling. When winds picked up Tuesday afternoon and the relative humidity dropped, the controlled burn quickly became uncontrollable and still was creating dense smoke when the accidents began before dawn Wednesday.

Yet those same tinderbox conditions are all the more reason to prescribe a burn, experts say.

"You have to burn in these areas whenever you can because if we don't, the buildup of the fuels gets so backed up that when there is a wildfire, it's super destructive and you can't put it out," said Mike Perry, who worked for the state Division of Forestry for 33 years.

What role, if any, the smoke played in the early morning crashes was the subject of speculation throughout Wednesday. The crash site was blanketed by heavy fog, but some motorists blamed the smoke from the fire for dropping visibility to nearly nothing.

Government officials, who had ordered the blaze and were in charge of containing it, defended the decision but promised a full investigation, including into whether the smoke played a role in the accidents.

The fire was set Tuesday morning by the forestry division, at the request of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which owns 6,093 acres on both sides of I-4 near U.S. 27. The burn was within a mile of the interstate.

Gary Morse, a spokesman for the wildlife commission, said the burn was necessary, even so close to the interstate. Other options for dealing with the dead undergrowth, such as piling it up and burning it, would cause more smoke and create conditions more conducive to wildfire, he said.

"We really have no other way that would be any safer than what we're doing," he said.

Before Florida was settled, natural fires burned undergrowth in the pine flatwoods and saw grass scrub. Plants evolved that needed the fire to grow.

"That fire is what produces the wide variety of plants and invertebrates that our wildlife needs to survive on a year-round basis," Morse said.

Perry, the former forestry worker, contracts to do prescribed burns for Hillsborough County and finished one without incident Tuesday at the county's Rhodine Scrub Nature Preserve in Riverview. He said the weather conditions were almost perfect, with light winds and relative humidity in the high 40 percent range.

Weather conditions were similar when the forestry division started the Polk County burn Tuesday morning. Winds were out of the southeast at about 3 to 4 mph, according to the National Weather Service office in Ruskin. At about 3 p.m., however, the wind picked up to 9 to 10 mph.

Chris Kintner, a forestry spokeswoman, said the humidity also dropped precipitously.

"We use very specific guidelines when we let people burn," Kintner said. "It's not a random decision, but the weather is hard to control."

Perry said the forestry division takes numerous precautions to make sure controlled burns stay that way. The agency only will issue a permit on the day of the burn to reduce the chance of being surprised by changing weather.

Workers conducting burns carry kits that measure wind direction and speed, humidity, temperature and dew point.

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

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