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Firefighters Protect Homes From 600-Acre Hernando Blaze

News Channel 8 photo by ANTHONY ALLRED

Winds aided the spread of the brush fire Sunday night in Hernando County.

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TBO.com

Published: March 21, 2009

Updated: 03/22/2009 09:58 pm

TAMPA - Firefighters have managed to secure an area in eastern Hernando County where a 600-acre brush fire threatened at least 50 homes.

Eight crews have created firebreaks between the blaze and dozens of houses along State Road 575 just east of Ridge Manor, state Division of Forestry spokesman Don Ruths said.

S.R. 575, east of U.S. 301 and south of State Road 50, has been reopened. A voluntary evacuation for about a dozen homes has been lifted.

A nine-mile stretch of S.R. 50 between U.S. 301 and S.R. 471 reopened just before 8 p.m. after heavy smoke forced the road to close for much of Sunday afternoon.

In two hours, the brush fire grew from 350 acres to 600. The blaze is about 15 percent contained, Ruths said.

Gusty winds fanned the flames, causing difficulties for firefighters.

"If the winds died down, we'd be better off," Ruths said.

Crews from the Division of Forestry, Hernando County Fire Rescue and the Sumter County Fire Department are expected to stay through Sunday night to contain the blaze, Ruths said.

The fire was first reported at 10:25 a.m. in the area of Richloam Clay Sink Road in the Withlacoochee State Forest, Hernando County sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Black said in a written statement.

The Hernando County brush fire wasn't the only one that Tampa Bay area firefighters had to contend with today. In Oldsmar, crews contained a 60-acre blaze and another near Balm in southeast Hillsborough County. No structures were damaged during the fires, officials said. The fire in Oldsmar may have been started by youths shooting off fireworks. Detectives are asking anyone with information on it to call the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office at (727) 582-6200.

Rebekah Brant, a duty officer with the Florida Division of Forestry, said the fire near the former Higgins Power Plant in Oldsmar sent smoke into the air for hours late Saturday afternoon.

The fire reportedly burned within 200 yards of some homes north of the park, but no homes were damaged, Pinellas County deputies said. There were no reported injuries.

The Balm blaze torched about 15 acres, Brant said. It was in an isolated area about four miles west of Plant City-Picnic Road, between County Roads 674 and 672, she said.

In Polk County, firefighters are fighting a brush fire near Bradley in southwest Polk County. The 150-acre blaze had been spreading quickly because of dry conditions and brisk winds, officials said. No homes or structures are threatened by the fire. Polk County sheriff's deputies reopened State Road 630 east of State Road 37.

A 780-acre wildfire in Sarasota County was 100 percent contained and Interstate 75 reopened Sunday morning after officials had to close it in both directions Saturday.

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