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Escaped Burn Prompts Procedure Examination

Posted Jan 10, 2008 by Mike Salinero

Updated Jan 10, 2008 at 05:28 PM

Forestry officials are rethinking procedures after a controlled burn raged out of control a half mile from Interstate 4 on Tuesday. Smoke from the fire is widely believed to have increased the density of fog that caused a 70-vehicle pileup near U.S. 27 early Wednesday morning.

Critics have questioned why the burning was done so close to the interstate during extremely dry conditions.

“In a situation like this you’re going to rethink what you’re doing,” said Chris Kintner, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Forestry in Lakeland. “And we’re getting close to cutting off all burning. We do look at that on yearly basis.”

The forestry agency, part of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, issues most burn permits in the state and can put restrictions on burning, including burn bans. So far, the forestry agency has not taken that step, having issued 34 burn authorizations in Polk and Hillsborough counties on Wednesday alone.

Most of those were for burning brush piles on agricultural land.

Kintner said the agency is going through an intense self-evaluation in light of the failure to keep the fire contained to the 10 acres prescribed for a burn. Kintner said the man in charge of the prescribed burn, Steve Burger, was devastated by the turn of events.

Still, the agency is not second-guessing its policy of authorizing controlled burns in the 19th month of a drought that has hit west-central Florida particularly hard.

“Hindsight is 20-20. You always rethink it after the fact,” Kintner said. “(But) We will have the kind of wildfires they have in California if we don’t do prescribed burns. People will lose their homes.”

Department of Agriculture law enforcement agents are investigating whether the smoke played a part in the wall of fog that caused four deaths and 38 injuries Wednesday morning.