Despite recent downpours across the greater Tampa Bay region, Florida Forest Service officials put residents on notice about high risk for wildfires.
While rain is welcome, officials said it would take ten to 12 inches of rain to offset the current conditions fueling the fire risk.
Since Jan. 1, the Florida Forest Service has already fought about 1,500 fires. That's about half the number of fires the division sees in a typical 12-month period, according to service officials. Peak wildfire season in Florida lasts through June.
Speaking at a press conference near Lakeland on Apr. 7, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said there are a couple of reasons for that.
"With the extraordinary drought... then you add the extraordinary freeze on top of it, everything was brown, very little moisture, and within a day or two, that what moisture we've gotten here today will be gone," he said. "And so it is very important to not underestimate Florida wildfire season."
On Tuesday, Florida Forest Service officials recommended that residents create a defensible space around their homes by clearing out dry and dead vegetation.
It's also important to fully extinguish any controlled fires, such as barbecues and bonfires, and to report uncontrolled fires as soon as possible, officials said.
"We need people to be very careful of that normal fire you would have in your backyard, the little bonfire, the brush burning. We need those thoroughly put out before you go to bed," Simpson said.
Patrick Kia, the district manager for the Lakeland district of the Florida Forest Service, said there's been extraordinary fire activity in recent months.
"I feel like this was the busiest winter I've had in my 27-year career," he said.
He likened the current wildfire risk to that of 2011, when similar conditions sparked wildfires that swallowed nearly 300,000 acres of land across the state for several months.
"That's what we don't want a repeat of," Simpson said. "You could have 50- to-100,000 acres burn again, and that's what we're trying to prevent."
Simpson said he's proud of the state's proactive approach to preventing wildfires through a robust prescribed burn program.
Burning about 2.5 million acres a year, Florida represents about a quarter of all prescribed burns annually in the country.
The state has also bolstered its helicopter fleet from one to ten aircrafts, as well as investing millions into a firefighting drone program.
This new technology has become more widely used by local law enforcement, including the Hernando County Fire Rescue and Sheriff's Office, as Fox 13 reports.
Last month, 150 acres burned after flames broke out in the Weeki Wachee Preserve in Hernando Beach, triggering evacuation orders for residents.
Forest Service officials said on Tuesday that there are two active fires in Hillsborough County. A fire north of Two Rivers Ranch off of U.S. 301 has been burning on swamp land for two weeks.
The other, which ignited Monday in the Lithia area, most likely from a lightning strike, is burning about four acres.
