Seacrest Forest Fire

[Paula]

THANK YOU to our firefighters, Steve, and everone else who offcially stepped in to save lives and property!

 

[lenzoe]

From the NWF Daily News:

It has been determined that the fire was caused by a lit cigarette thrown into an area with tall grass and pine straw, which was dry enough to support the ignition.


Read more: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles/walton-49285-beach-homes.html#ixzz1td2wjoix

 

[SlowMovin]

From the NWF Daily News:

It has been determined that the fire was caused by a lit cigarette thrown into an area with tall grass and pine straw, which was dry enough to support the ignition.


Read more: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/articles...#ixzz1td2wjoix

It's my understanding that was the cause of the fire in the development behind the Tom Thumb and Cafe 30-A about five years ago. That one did destroy a few houses and almost got the Rolling Tides condo complex. They actually had to send the chemical dumping plane over a few times before they got it under control.

One cigarette.

 

[beachmouse]

If a cop is in the right place to see it happen, throwing a lit cigarette from a vehicle is a criminal misdemeanor precisely because of forest fire concerns.

 

[SlowMovin]

If a cop is in the right place to see it happen, throwing a lit cigarette from a vehicle is a criminal misdemeanor precisely because of forest fire concerns.

I don't know about the fire in Seacrest, but the one behind Tom Thumb was supposedly tossed by a housecleaner who had stepped out back to smoke, then dropped the butt into the landscaping pinestraw. All the other properties surrounding also had decorative pinestraw or bark in the flower beds. That was what allowed the fire to spread so widely and quickly. It was a windy day and burning clumps of pinestraw were actually being blown through the air.

 

[beachmouse]

The thing I really dislike about Watercolor is how they use the pine straw pretty much everywhere for landscaping purposes. Yeah, it looks really nice, but more years than not, we get drought conditions in May and June and the pine straw just seems like it's kindling for something worse.

 

[librarian]

thanks to Steve and the "official" firefighters-we're really glad that they were able to limit the damage- we'll be enjoying those wonderful salads outdoors come memorial week.