{"id":279505,"date":"2026-05-21T13:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/279505\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:57:08","slug":"florida-cabinet-officers-give-warning-as-peak-wildfire-season-is-only-beginning-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/279505\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Cabinet officers give warning as peak wildfire season is only beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix<\/a><\/p>\n

With severe drought conditions and more than 2,100 fires in Florida spread across 135,000 acres just since January, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and other top state officials offered warnings to Floridians Tuesday as the peak of the state\u2019s wildfire season approaches.<\/p>\n

Those officials noted that most of the fires have been man-made, but with thunderstorms now returning on a more regular basis as summer kicks in, that will bring lighting and likely result in more fires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe predictive services, they\u2019ve been correct all along, and they\u2019re now predicting Florida to be in drought conditions, high fire danger, and higher fire activity through the end of July and into August now,\u201d said Florida Forest Service Director Rick Dolan during a press conference at the Withlacoochee Training Center in Brooksville.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo folks, we\u2019ve already been into this for four-and-a-half months, and we\u2019re looking at another two-and-a-half months ahead of us. And it\u2019 =s a long season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The leading causes of fires so far in 2026 in Florida have backyard fires or arson, said Simpson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had many fires started this year from backyard fires getting out of hand,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople throwing cigarettes out windows and things that sometimes we take for granted, but have started and turned into many hundreds if not thousands of acres of fire this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than half the state \u2014 37 counties \u2014 have burn bans in effect, according to the Florida Forest Service.<\/a>\u00a0Violators are subject to a $500 fine, up to 60 days in county jail, or both.<\/p>\n

The surfeit of fires comes as the state has been suffering from drought-like conditions for months now, the worst since 2012, according to\u00a0NASA.<\/a> As of Thursday, most counties in Florida are either experiencing \u201cextreme drought\u201d or \u201cexceptional drought,\u201d as described by the\u00a0U.S Drought Monitor.<\/a><\/p>\n

No fireworks for America\u2019s 250th?<\/p>\n

If the state doesn\u2019t receive substantial rain in June, Simpson warned, firework demonstrations may need to be curtailed on the 4th of July, which this year commemorates America\u2019s 250th\u00a0birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are talking about, obviously, potentially hundreds of thousands of people going out and doing fireworks, you can put the entire state on fire in one evening all over the state at one time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I think it\u2019s going to be very important as we get closer to the 4th of July. We all love the 250th celebration we\u2019re going to have this year, but we probably ought to be considering alternatives. And, of course if we\u2019re blessed with rain, a big rain or plenty of rain in June, maybe all of that will change. But it\u2019s something that people should certainly be planning for. In all communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simpson and Dolan said the public needs to take control by building a \u201cdefensible space\u201d around their homes or businesses, clearing brush, and making sure their roofs and gutters are cleared. As is the case when preparing for hurricanes, Floridians should have a \u201cfive-minute plan\u201d about what they would need to take with them if they have to quickly evacuate.<\/p>\n

Attorney General James Uthmeier and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia also spoke during the press conference. Uthmeier warned that anyone found guilty of committing arson is subject to five years behind bars and serious fines.<\/p>\n

Florida law<\/a> says that any person \u201cwho possesses, manufactures, transports, or disposes of a fire bomb with intent\u201d to damage by fire or explosion any structure or property is guilty of a felony of the third degree, which could result in five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines.<\/p>\n

Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>. Banner photo: A wildfire at Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons).<\/p>\n

Sign up for The Invading Sea newsletter by visiting here<\/a>. If you are interested in submitting an opinion piece to The Invading Sea, email Editor Nathan Crabbe<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix With severe drought conditions and more than 2,100 fires in Florida spread across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[73534,1637,71961,525,48309,28,7951,35099,30,29,9662,6977,115330,10782,9962],"class_list":["post-279505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-4th-of-july","tag-arson","tag-burn-bans","tag-drought","tag-fireworks","tag-florida","tag-florida-department-of-agriculture-and-consumer-services","tag-florida-forest-service","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-lightning","tag-thunderstorms","tag-wildfire-season","tag-wildfires","tag-wilton-simpson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279505","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=279505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}