{"id":237805,"date":"2026-04-19T12:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/237805\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T12:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:20:13","slug":"500-acre-brush-fire-near-jacksonville-now-40-contained-homes-evacuated-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/237805\/","title":{"rendered":"500-acre brush fire near Jacksonville now 40% contained; homes evacuated"},"content":{"rendered":"

HILLIARD, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Firefighters near Jacksonville are battling a 500-acre brush fire, and as of Saturday morning, it’s 40% contained, per officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the Florida Forest Service<\/a>, crews are on scene, and eight additional tractor-plow units were dispatched on Friday. An aircraft has also been dispatched for reconnaissance, with a helicopter assisting in suppressing the blaze.<\/p>\n

The epicenter of the fire is in Hilliard, a rural community outside of Jacksonville with a population of just under 3,000 residents.<\/p>\n

See also: Targeted shooting at Riviera Beach FedEx facility leaves 1 dead, suspect in custody<\/a><\/p>\n

And in the small, tight-knit community, neighbors show no hesitation in offering a helping hand.<\/p>\n

“We’re offering room for evacuees, really any type of animal to come in. We’ve got space for horses, goats, cows, whatever,” resident Kaitlin Hartford told ActionJax News. “I have a trailer that’s hooked up and ready, so we can come pick anybody up if they need it.”<\/p>\n

Officials say at least a dozen homes have been voluntarily evacuated, and one barn has been damaged, according to ActionJaxNews<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At this time, fire officials urge people to avoid the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HILLIARD, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Firefighters near Jacksonville are battling a 500-acre brush fire, and as of Saturday morning,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-237805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237805","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=237805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}