page_title: 1998 Florida wildfires
section_title: Fires
hierarchical_section_title: 1998 Florida wildfires / Fires
caption_attribution_description: English: Flagler County, FL, June 25, 1998 -- Several homes were destroyed by wildfire in Flagler County, FL. Photo by Liz Roll
context_page_description: The 1998 Florida wildfires, sometimes referred to as the Florida Firestorm, was a wildfire event involving several thousand separate woodland and mixed urban-rural wildfires which wrought severe damage during the summer months of 1998. Wildfires sparked mainly by lightning threatened to converge into single, vast blazes, crossed natural firebreaks such as rivers and interstate highways, and demanded an unprecedented suppression response of firefighting resources from across the country. Regular activities such as Fourth of July celebrations, sporting events, tourism, and daily life were profoundly interrupted for millions of residents and visitors in the northeastern part of the state.
context_section_description: The fires began in mid-May, most started by lightning strikes.  What rain came with the thunderstorms was inadequate to prevent or stop the fires.  In late May and early June, numerous separate fires were igniting in Brevard, Osceola, Orange, Seminole, St. John's, Flagler, and Volusia counties, near the communities of Flagler Estates, Daytona Beach, and Palm Coast.  The Big Bend region also experienced major fires in the Apalachicola and Osceola National Forests. With dry conditions persisting and alarm over the fires growing, on June 7, Governor Lawton Chiles declared a state of emergency. By mid-June, fires burning near I-95 forced its closure in the area. During the middle two weeks of June, each day saw the fires grow larger and everyday life more interrupted, and on June 25, in consideration of the upcoming Independence Day celebration, the Governor declared all sales and possession of fireworks illegal.  Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27 saw some abatement of conditions with the arrival of rain, and Monday the 28th, Federal agencies brought in firefighting resources including helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.  By July 1, however, increasing winds once again worsened conditions, and the firebreak of I-95 was soon jumped as embers were blown eastward from fires burning in woodlands west of the interstate. By July 4, 135 miles of I-95 from Jacksonville to Titusville was closed, and Division of Forestry models indicated that several fires could merge into one conflagration stretching from Daytona to St. Augustine. The entire population of Flagler County, some 35,000 residents, was ordered to evacuate. The Pepsi 400, usually held at Daytona International Speedway on the Forth of July, was postponed. That was the day that news media, learning that firefighters were short of bandanas used as protective face covers, sent out the call for as many bananas as could be supplied, and firefighters were inundated with truckloads of the fruit.  On July 5, the tide finally turned as rains and humidity increased.  By mid-July, with most fires under control, over 2000 individual wildfires had burned in Florida, destroying nearly 500,000 acres, 150 structures, and 86 vehicles.
caption: One of over 100 burned homes
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