New Requirements for Fire Control in the Wildland Urban Interface in the 1990s

By the 1980s, state fire control in the region began to be influenced by increasing urbanization in this fast-growing region of the country. State and local fire control agencies that were trained and equipped for fighting fire on ranches and timberlands were now faced with urban encroachment.  For example, since about the 1940s, a typical wildfire response in rural areas having flat terrain had involved a single, independently capable firefighter.  One professional firefighter operating a bulldozer equipped with a fire plow could often extinguish a fire with minimal help from others. With urbanization, however, fire control involved multiple jurisdictions, required significant interagency cooperation, and utilized a mix of urban structural firefighting as well as rural firefighting skills.

On May 17, 1985, the South experienced its first large scale wildland-urban interface disaster.  On this day, thereafter known as “Black Friday,” fire in the central Florida subdivision of Palm Coast burned 40,470 hectares, including 600 homes and other buildings.  1,000 residents were evacuated and one firefighter died (International Forest Fire News 2002).

The 1998 fire season eclipsed the events of “Black Friday.”  In the wake of the 1997-98 El Niño event, Florida experienced a moist winter followed by an exceptionally dry spring, which provided an abundance of flammable vegetation.  By May, multiple fires were resisting control (NIFC 2005).  By late July, when the seasonal rains overcame the fires, 2,214 wildfires had burned nearly 500,000 acres across the state (Lewis 1998), including 7 central Florida counties (NIFC 2005).  In Volusia County alone, 244 miles of fire breaks were constructed, 29,000 homes were threatened and timber losses were estimated at $60-$70 million (Volusia County 1998).  For a short time, all 44,000 residents of Flagler County were ordered to leave – the first time in history that an entire southern county was evacuated. When the fires ended, more than 10,000 firefighters from 47 different states participated in the firefighting effort (Lewis 1998), including dozens of agencies and the National Guard (Volusia County 1998).  Aerial firefighting resources exceeded 150 aircraft, the largest aerial suppression operation ever conducted in the nation (Florida Division of Emergency Management 2005). The value of lost timber exceeded $300 million (Lewis 1998).  Remarkably, throughout the long ordeal, only 337 homes were damaged or destroyed and 33 businesses burned (Florida Division of Emergency Management 2005). The only fatalities resulting from the entire operation occurred not on the fire line, but tragically when a fire crew returning home to the West died in a helicopter crash. Today the National Interagency Fire Center ranks the Florida fires of 1998 among the most significant fires in US history (NIFC 2005).