| Columbia County firefighter Shawn Henderson stands by while a fire burns an oak tree and the surrounding area in Columbia City. Fire crews established fire lines with the intent of using its fuel sources to get the fire to die down. |
County fire department spent more than three hours battling blaze in a thicket of woods.
tbritt@lakecityreporter.com
COLUMBIA CITY — Columbia County Fire Department firefighters and Florida Division of Forestry rangers spent more than three hours in a thicket of woods trying to corral a fire burning hundreds of shipping pallets Friday afternoon.
Firefighters had been at the scene two days earlier.
Columbia County Fire Department assistant chief Jim Cason said Wednesday's fire was in front of the area
which burned Friday afternoon on the old Watson Family Farm property in Columbia City. The area has been used as a pallet dumping ground for years.
"Apparently, there were some people trying to retrieve some scrap metal and things off some old, abandoned house trailers and in doing so, apparently with their welding torches, they started the initial fire," he said. "We don't know whether this was reset today or if it started from a rekindle from the first fire."
Cason said the section of property that burned Friday was stacked 10-15 feet high with wooden and plastic pallets.
"There was too much fuel involved here and too wide of an area for us to even apply water," he said.
Three Columbia County Fire Department units, from the Ichetucknee fire station, Columbia City fire station and Ellisville station with six firefighters responded to the scene around 11 a.m. At 2 p.m., firefighters were still working on the fire.
Two Florida Division of Forestry rangers arrived at the scene later and used bulldozers to plow a firebreak between the pallet fire and an open field in the area.
Friday's high winds also hampered the effort to control the blaze.
"With the direction of the wind, it pushed the fire through the pallets fairly quickly and got it off into the green woods," Cason said, noting rangers were trying to make sure spot fires didn't ignite in a nearby pine forest. "With the humidity levels down and drought index as high as it is right now, any kind of spark can start a fire of this magnitude."
Cason said firefighters will continue to monitor the scene for days to make sure the fire doesn't rekindle.
"We'll be doing mop-up on this fire for days," he said.
