highly active year for wildfires<\/a> has yet to arrive.<\/p>\nAttorney General James Uthmeier said his office will hold people accountable if they start \u201csome big bonfire with these drought conditions, and the wind blows, and all of a sudden the neighborhood is on fire, you will be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHave fun. Have a good time. Enjoy some beers over the holidays this summer. But if you\u2019re in one of these burn ban counties \u2026 please take this seriously,\u201d Uthmeier said during a news conference at the Withlacoochee Forestry Training Center in Brooksville. \u201cIf you violate these orders, if danger takes place, if people are harmed, we will be there to prosecute.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson added that without significant rain to end drought conditions found in 90% of the state, alternatives to fireworks could be in order for the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re talking about \u2026 potentially hundreds of thousands of people going out and doing fireworks. You could put the entire state on fire in one evening,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n
Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who is also the state\u2019s fire marshal, expressed a need for people to use \u201ccommon sense\u201d as summer holidays arrive, kids are out of school and there is an increase in parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had some rain, nowhere near what is needed to fill reservoirs and make sure the ground is saturated to quell the fires,\u201d Ingoglia said. \u201cBefore you start burnings, before the bonfire, check with local authorities to make sure you\u2019re not putting anyone at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the start of the year, 2,101 wildfires have been reported on state and federal lands in Florida, consuming 136,584 acres, according to the state Forest Service.<\/p>\n
Burn bans, with prohibitions on burning yard debris, were in place in 15 counties on Tuesday: Lake, Lee, Levy, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Johns, Sumter, Union and Wakulla.<\/p>\n
Last year, the state recorded 2,913 fires that burned 228,183 acres.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to take at least a foot of rain to get us out of severe drought conditions in most counties,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been through many wildfire seasons, probably none like this one in several decades, many decades,\u201d Simpson added. \u201cThis is as bad as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simpson said property owners should regularly clear their roofs and gutters, maintain debris-free space around the property, and have plans mapped out for what to take, such as pets and medicines, if told to quickly evacuate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will get through this, but we need residents to pay attention,\u201d Simpson said.<\/p>\n
By Jim Turner, News Service of Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Floridians could be advised to celebrate the nation\u2019s upcoming 250th anniversary without fireworks if heavy, ground-soaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[14758,2545,28,30,29,4260,118260,118259,9962,118261],"class_list":["post-277121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-drought-conditions","tag-fire-marshal","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-members-of-the-state-cabinet","tag-upper-tampa-bay-park","tag-wilton-simpson","tag-withlacoochee-forestry-training-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277121","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=277121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}