Steve Parsons

Bringing under control the fires that threaten homes was the top priority of the day, said Steve Parsons, a spokesman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and one of thousands of United States Forest Service employees called in to help with the fight."We can't let our guard down anywhere," he said.

Between 500 and 600 residents left their homes in the Brevard County town of Mims on Tuesday night, as well as several communities in Volusia, Lee and Walton counties.Many returned home on Wednesday morning, only to leave again a little while later.

Windy, dry conditions aren't helping the firefighting effort in these communities, and afternoon thunderstorms continue to spark new blazes every day.On Tuesday, 112 new fires were started and lightning ignited 90 percent of them.Overall, 200 to 300 blazes burn in the state.
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We can get a containment line around them, but they don't go out," Parsons said.

Volusia County now scores a 790 on the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, a scale that ranks climates from zero for no drought to 800 for extreme drought or desert conditions.The drought index, which is most often used by foresters, measures the amount of moisture in an environment, taking into consideration a number of factors, including temperature, humidity and overall precipitation.

Florida usually ranks in the 300 to 400 range this time of year.The state average now hovers around 700, Parsons says.

At this time, there is no hope of rain dousing the flames; a high pressure center in the Atlantic Ocean has formed a ridge that is preventing storms from reaching Florida, the state that needs them most.

At least three to five inches of rain are needed to extinguish the fires; several more inches are needed to end the drought, Parsons said.But little rain is in the forecast for this week and there is only a 20 percent chance Wednesday.

"We're in this for the long-term so we need to be vigilant and we need to be careful," Parsons said, adding that negligent burning started a few of the fires.

Overall, 1,621 fires were started in Florida in the last month, scorching 260,274 acres.About 4,500 firefighters from 39 states have been battling the inferno this week.

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