Mulch Fire Likely to Linger Today It Broke Out at a City-Operated Composting Center on the Southside.
By STEVE PATTERSON
A mulch fire that started Sunday at a Southside Jacksonville composting center is expected to burn through today, possibly sending smoke across Philips Highway.
About 70 firefighters worked Sunday evening to keep the fire contained at the city-operated center on Davis Creek Road East, which is in an industrial park south of Florida 9A.
Firefighters also battled a woods fire near a Mandarin park, while more than a thousand firefighters in Southeast Georgia and North Florida spent the day battling huge fires that have lingered for weeks.
The mulch fire wasn’t expected to spread and didn’t pose a threat Sunday evening to homes or businesses, said Lt. Mike Peery of the Jacksonville fire department. A spark carried by wind did cause a 1- acre fire on neighboring land, but that was contained, Peery said.
The composting center where the fire started receives yard waste collected from homes around the city and recycles it into mulch, soil blenders and similar products.
Yard waste pickup is canceled for today, but it expected to resume Tuesday, a news release from Mayor John Peyton’s office said.
Peery said it’s not clear what started the fire, which was burning in a mound of wooden debris 15 to 20 feet tall. Firefighters were pouring water on the mound but didn’t have the means to safely sort through the heap to extinguish the flames. Instead, they will let the fire burn itself out while making sure it doesn’t spread.
“We’re expecting this to probably take a couple of days,” Peery said.
Also Sunday, city firefighters and crews from the Florida Division of Forestry fought a 2-acre woods fire near Hood and Shad roads, not far from Losco Park, Peery said. He said a firebreak had been set up around the woods.
New fires sparked Sunday in Southeast Georgia near the giant fires that have consumed hundreds of square miles of woods.
A situation report released Sunday afternoon by incident managers there described two new fires near U.S. 1, one north of Folkston and one in Brantley County. There were also two areas in Ware County where fires had reappeared in previously burned woods. Water- carrying aircraft, tractors for cutting firebreaks and fire engines were being used to battle the flames.
The region’s three large forest fires, named Sweat Farm, Big Turnaround and Bugaboo, have burned about 567,000 acres since the first one began more than a month ago.steve.patterson@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4263FIRE UPDATESGeorgia wildfires: 444,402 acres; Sweat Farm Road Fire, 75 percent contained, Big Turnaround Complex, 50 percent contained; cost, $36.2 million.Florida Bugaboo Fire: 122,704 acres; 90 percent contained; cost, $7.9 million.Mandatory evacuations: Swamp Road from Suwannee Chapel Road to Road 13, Suwannee Chapel Road from 8 Mile Post Road to Swamp Road.Precautionary evacuations: Swamp Road from Jim Cox Road to Road 13, Reeves Landing in Clinch County.Road closures: Swamp Road from Road 13 south to Suwannee Chapel Road, Swamp Road from Road 13 north to Jim Cox Road is open to local traffic only, Georgia 177 between Stephen C. Foster State Park and Fargo.
(c) 2007 Florida Times Union. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.