Wildfire — Columbia, Florida

2007-05-08 to 2007-05-31 · Columbia, Florida

Event narrative

Lightning strikes on Saturday night, May 5th, ignited two 11 acre and 21 acre fires on Bugaboo Island in the southern Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (southwest of Stephen Foster State Park). On the 8th through 10th high winds around large coastal low pressure system quickly resulted in extreme fire spread in southern Ware and Clinch counties in Southeast Georgia (The Georgia Bugaboo Scrub Fire). The fires combined and raced southward toward Baker and Columbia counties in north Florida becoming the Florida Bugaboo Scrub Fire. Due to close proximity to large populated areas, most significantly Lake City, Florida the fire generated large media attention and became the dominant fire between the two Bugaboo Scrub complexes. By late on the 8th Georgia State Road 94 and Florida State Road 2 (All one road with two designations) was closed from Moniac, Georgia to Fargo, Georgia due to the threat of the Bugaboo Scrub fire crossing SR 2 and poor visibility because of smoke in the area. By 4:00 p.m. EDT 500 people were evacuated from the vicinity of Taylor, Florida in northern Baker County and others were evacuated near Moniac, Georgia. The focus the fire fighting efforts from May 8th-10th was on structure protection in the Taylor and Baxter, Florida area. Fire crews, along with private timber companies, were working along the flanks of the fire where conditions allowed, as well as, working to protect structures. Fire crews and forest industry personnel were also strengthening lines on the southwest edge of the Georgia Bugaboo Scrub near Fargo. The Southern Area Blue Team assumed responsibility of the Florida Bugaboo Scrub Fire, South of State Road 2, on May 10th at 10:00 a.m. EDT. At this point the fire had burned nearly 26,746 acres.

From the 10th through the 13th the fire burned southwest toward Deep Creek and lake City in Columbia County causing evacuations in those areas and sporadic closings of Interstates 10 and 75 in the area. By the 13th the Florida Bugaboo Scrub Fire had burned 102,000 acres, Georgia Bugaboo had burned 131,718 acres and the totals for the two were 233, 718 acres and 570 persons were forced from their homes. Smoke from these large fires produced hazy conditions as far south as Miami over the weekend. On May 14th, About 4:00 p.m. the fire jumped containment line in the Fairview Road area east of US-441, about five miles north of the Deep Creek community but was contained overnight. At this time the fire was considered to be 50 percent contained. Tuesday, May 15th became a critical day for firefighters as winds gusted to 18 mph, with lower humidity and higher temperatures making containing the fire more difficult. The fire was located about eight miles north of Interstate-10 and 1.5 miles east of U.S. Highway 441. While no homes were damaged or destroyed, the fire burned to within a mile of the closest homes, which were located on Omar Terrace, about a mile east of U.S. 441 and the Deep Creek community. At this point there are some 300 homes evacuated, affecting approximately 1,000 people. 48 structural fire units were situated around 350 homes in the immediate area of the fire to prevent loss. By Tuesday evening, the Florida portion of the Bugaboo Fire had increased to a total of 119,501 acres and was 50% contained.

After this point the fire remained within containment with burnout operations continuing around the perimeter through the remainder of the month. Rains from Tropical Storm Barry (6/1-6/2) aided with fire control efforts.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 37052. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.