{"id":239841,"date":"2026-04-21T03:07:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239841\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T03:07:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:07:16","slug":"alachua-county-issues-wildfire-state-of-emergency-as-florida-drought-expands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/239841\/","title":{"rendered":"Alachua County issues wildfire state of emergency as Florida drought expands"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alachua County issued a state of emergency\u00a0as\u00a0multiple wildfires\u00a0remain\u00a0active close to Gainesville, allowing\u00a0additional\u00a0funds to\u00a0continually\u00a0staff all brush trucks and water\u00a0tankers\u00a0while also raising awareness.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The state of emergency\u00a0started at\u00a02 p.m. on Monday. The decision comes after Gainesville Fire Rescue, Alachua County Fire Rescue and Florida Forest Service responded to two\u00a0wildfires in northern Gainesville\u00a0that threatened structures and\u00a0forced\u00a0evacuations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The state of emergency also allows Alachua County to open its emergency operations center, like that used during hurricanes, as soon as needed,\u00a0along with shelters if fires continue to prompt evacuations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Become A Member<\/p>\n<p>Mainstreet does not have a paywall, but pavement-pounding journalism is not free. Join your neighbors who make this vital work possible.<\/p>\n<p>The N. Main Street fire number two is at\u00a0106 acres\u00a0and 25%\u00a0contained.\u00a0Ludie Bond with\u00a0the\u00a0Florida Forest Service said new activity continues on the southern side of the fire, but she said the containment lines have\u00a0held\u00a0so far.\u00a0She noted that the fire pattern has been extremely\u00a0erratic, and the wildfire jumped from the\u00a0west\u00a0to the east side of Main Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The State\u00a0Road 121 wildfire number 2\u00a0has\u00a0held at around\u00a025 acres\u00a0and is 60%\u00a0contained.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Town of Lacrosse Fire Department assisted with the State Road 121 wildfire.<\/p>\n<p>Bond said the State Road 26 fire, northeast of the Gainesville Regional Airport, is\u00a0306\u00a0acres, 65%\u00a0contained\u00a0and continues to be\u00a0monitored. She said\u00a0firefighters\u00a0saw\u00a0concerning\u00a0explosive fire\u00a0behavior\u00a0that fire\u2014and others.\u00a0That behavior is directly connected to the extreme drought, and Bond said the behavior was expected but\u00a0remains\u00a0tough\u00a0to deal with, requiring\u00a0short- and long-range\u00a0spotting to\u00a0detect\u00a0fire startups from embers off the main wildfire.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She said the drought is expected through July and that residents could expect at least 10 more weeks of drought conditions and wildfire risk. The Floridan aquifer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mainstreetdailynews.com\/news\/floridan-aquifer-levels-lowest-since-2011\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fell below the 20th percentile<\/a> last month, the lowest since 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Bond said\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0been no lightning, so fires are coming from other sources, like people.\u00a0She stressed that people should be concerned\u00a0with\u00a0any outdoor activity. All open, outdoor fires are prohibited.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s\u00a0been no loss of life or residences from the fires so far.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The following roadways\u00a0remain\u00a0closed:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>N. Main Street between 39th Avenue and 53rd Avenue\u00a0remains\u00a0closed.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>State Road 121 between US 441 and 77th Avenue is open to local traffic only.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>State Road 121\u00a0remains\u00a0closed between 77th Avenue and County Road 231.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Gainesville Fire Rescue (GFR) Chief Joseph Hillhouse said firefighters are using the hydrant system where wildfires get close to residences to push the fire back. He said the situation\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0where\u00a0neighborhoods get consumed and abandoned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hillhouse said having that continual source of water from hydrants allows them to alter an unchecked fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Alachua County Fire Rescue Chief Herold Theus said the county is used to dealing with fires without the hydrant system. He said the county has\u00a0maintained\u00a0the containment lines bulldozed by\u00a0the\u00a0Florida Forest Service, ensuring the fire\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0jump over the line to ignite the other side.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said the brush trucks would be staffed up at all fire stations along with the normal fire engines. He said both would be able to deploy as needed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Theus reiterated Bond\u2019s point on residents being cautious\u00a0with\u00a0outdoor activities. He noted that the county\u2019s burn ban has continued since Nov.\u00a017\u2014the longest in his memory. The last time the county even had a burn ban\u00a0was\u00a02021.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alachua County issued a state of emergency\u00a0as\u00a0multiple wildfires\u00a0remain\u00a0active close to Gainesville, allowing\u00a0additional\u00a0funds to\u00a0continually\u00a0staff all brush trucks and water\u00a0tankers\u00a0while&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-239841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239841","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=239841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}