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This year’s parched conditions in Florida through Winter and Spring provided ripe conditions for an intense wildfire season as many counties instituted burn bans for fear of sparking more blazes.
But most of those advisories are now being lifted as the state is heading into the rainy season. Duval County, home to Jacksonville, is the latest area to ease up on measures to reduce fire hazards.
The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department announced this week its burn ban came to an end. The order, which stipulated that no open fires could be started in the county, has been in effect for most of the past two months.
But officials with the city say recent rains ushered into the state by cold fronts in May have dampened the landscape in the area.
“Conditions have improved enough in Duval County that lifting the burn ban is the right call,” said Jacksonville Fire Chief Percy Golden II. “We made the decision carefully, in consultation with our partners at the National Weather Service, Florida Forest Service (FFS), and Emergency Preparedness Division.”
Duval County issued its burn ban April 21 and was among dozens of counties in the state that had prohibited open fires as wildfires raged in many of the 67 counties. There were about 114 wildfires burning on April 21 alone, according to the FFS.
There were 2,247 wildfires recorded this year. FFS estimates a total of 145,671 acres were torched by the blazes. The state’s Fire Danger Index listed 28 counties as still having a moderate risk of fire danger and the remaining counties were low risk
There were seven active wildfires in Florida as of Thursday and only 15 counties left in the state with burn bans, according to the FFS. Most of the counties with remaining burn bans were in Southwest Florida stretching from the Tampa area down to Collier County with a few interior counties.
North Florida, which was the scene of raging fires from the Emerald Coast to the First Coast in April, had only two counties left with active burn bans in Franklin and Baker counties. Brevard and Orange counties were the only remaining counties with active burn bans on or near the East Coast.
Florida will still have potential wildfire threats until drought conditions improve. The U.S. Drought Monitor projects the Big Bend area is under exceptional drought conditions while other areas of North Florida stretching south to Southwest Florida are still listed as extreme drought. The entire East Coast and Panhandle are noted as having severe or moderate drought conditions.
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