{"id":154736,"date":"2026-02-13T19:45:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T19:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154736\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T19:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T19:45:19","slug":"charlotte-countys-drought-sparks-fire-safety-concerns-charlotte-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/154736\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte County&#8217;s drought sparks fire safety concerns | Charlotte County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Charlotte County is facing an extreme drought, and the evidence is clear in the dry brush covering the area on Friday. Residents say it&#8217;s the worst they&#8217;ve seen in years.<\/p>\n<p>Fire officials emphasize that small preventative measures can make a big difference in reducing fire risks. They advise clearing dry brush around homes, properly extinguishing cigarettes, and never leaving open flames unattended.<\/p>\n<p>The threat is real, as last year a 200-acre fire swept through Myakka State Forest. With the current drought, it doesn\u2019t take much for a fire to ignite.<\/p>\n<p>Neighbors are doing their part by trimming what they can and staying vigilant. However, officials remind everyone that one careless cigarette or spark can lead to devastating consequences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Charlotte County is facing an extreme drought, and the evidence is clear in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,4250,3837],"class_list":{"0":"post-154736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-charlotte","12":"tag-collaborator_gen_stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}