County Line Fire Update April 13, 2012 8:00pm
Incident: County Line Fire Wildfire
Released: 4/13/2012
Current Status
-Management of the County Line Fire was delegated to the Southern Area Type 2 Incident Management Team led by Incident Commander Michael Dueitt on Tuesday, April 10.
-Wednesday and Thursdays' fire behavior conditions proved beneficial to the strategic burning operations that were carried out on those nights. Fire activity on the interior of the burn area pulled control line fire inward and helped create a wider control line.
-Today's operations were focusing on cleaning up unburned fuels on the inside of the control lines. The initial goal was to have a 50 foot wide fuel free zone on the inside of our control lines, eventually expanding the zone to 200 feet. Additional safety concerns included sand roads, burned-out stumps, snags, and under-burned trees. Primarily because the winds had died down, fire activity continued to be mostly in the interior portions of the fire. This allowed firefighters to focus their efforts on strengthening and widening the containment lines.
- Fire photos may be downloaded from http://inciweb.org/incident/2813/
Planned Events
Continue to reinforce containment lines and be alert to react to spot-overs.
Estimate Acreage
34,936
Percent Containment
60 percent
Cause / Date Started
The fire started on Thursday, April 5. The cause was lightning.
Personnel and Equipment
367 personnel are on the fire. Equipment includes 40 fire engines, 29 dozers, and 5 helicopters.
Participating Agencies & Cooperators
USDA Forest Service, Florida Forest Service, John Bethea State Forest, The Langdale Company, Greater Okefenokee Association of Landowners, The Forestry Company, Columbia County, Baker County, Georgia Forest, Baker Co. Fire Dept., Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Dept. of Transportation, Columbia County Fire Dept
Restrictions and Closures
There is a Temporary Flight Restriction in place for a 7-mile radius from the fire's center up to 3,000 ft.
Fire Weather
Western Atlantic High pressure will continue to ridge back into the Deep South with easterly low level flow continuing over the fire area. Moisture will continue to slowly increase today as the late afternoon into evening sea breeze surge moves into the area. Low level flow will veer southeast to southerly continuing the warming and moist trend through the weekend and into early next week.
Smoke
Based on smoke modeling and weather predictions at the County Line Fire Incident Command Post, we expect smoke from the fire to continue moving west and northwest tonight and tomorrow. The amount of smoke from the fire today was much lighter, and that trend should continue over the next 24 hours. We expect local roads and areas near the fire to have smoke at ground level and reduced visibility through tonight and early tomorrow morning. Smoke can create hazardous driving conditions, particularly in the early morning hours, especially if smoke mixes with fog. Drivers should slow down, turn on low beams and obey any advisories. For more info, visit: http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jax/ n=hourlyforecast
