Two large wildfires that erupted Saturday, March 16 were contained early the following day and no property damage was reported, according to Doc Bloodworth, a wildfire mitigation specialist with the Florida Forest Service.
He said about 65 acres were scorched off L.E. Harvey Road in the south county, coming close to residential properties like the one shown above. That blaze was contained Sunday afternoon and crews remained there early this week for “mop up” operations.
A 22-acre wildfire started on Sawtooth Dr. off Steel Bridge Road north of Macclenny the same windy afternoon and was contained about two hours after the L.E. Harvey Road fire.
Both fires resulted from authorized burns that got out of control. The threat of wildfire activity remains moderate to low in Baker County, according to state’s drought and fire danger indexes. So far this year in the Suwannee Forestery District (Baker, Bradford, Suwannee, Columbia and Hamilton counties), 104 wildfires have burned 408.8 acres.