Walton County Wild Fire Under Control; 80 Acres Burned

Fire fighters will inspect what remains of an 80 acre fire in north Walton County over the next few days to see if the status can be changed from contained to controlled.

The fire isn’t completely out yet. The status as of today is contained but this afternoon no signs of flames showed in a charred field near Glendale where the fire began. The Florida Division of Forestry says this is a dangerous time of the year for wildfires.

A field near Glendale in northern Walton County looks barren and charred Monday afternoon

“…we reported originally thought it was around 100 acres.”

Brian Goddin with the Division of Forestry says that the fire spread quickly across the field.

With structures nearby, firefighters had to work fast “our guys got a fire line around it ...or a fire break some of the guys call it..and basically supressed the fire so it couldn’t go any farther.”

The firefighters with the Division of Forestry say they believe it started at this feeder right here. The fire spread really quickly with these west winds all the way 80 acres down this field. And it ended up avoiding five structures.

The origin of the fire could suggest a bigger problem.

Goddin says “…we believe at this point that the fire was started by a piece of farm equipment for lack of a better term. Basically with the dead, dry fuels out here…a lot of this dead, dry grass and a hot piece of equipment like a tractor or a trailer or something igniting that from the heat is what we believe to be the cause of the wildfire.”

It’s a warning to all…to be careful during the dry winter season.

Because of dry conditions the division of forestry will not be issuing burning authorization in any of the surrounding counties.