Firefighters face blazes

PALM BAY - Firefighters facing blazes that have destroyed or damaged more than 160 homes on Florida's Atlantic coast are battling flames amid lush palms and shrubs that have been allowed to flourish as communities sprang up among them, experts said Tuesday.

Wildfires have scorched an estimated 10,000 acres in and around the neighboring towns of Palm Bay and Malabar, built into dense woods along Interstate 95. Investigators are searching for one or more arsonists who apparently started the fires.

Many houses are surrounded by ashes, twisted limbs and charred, slender tree trunks, but some residents managed to save their homes with buckets of water and garden hoses.

Angel Pagan, a 35-year-old salesman, watched Tuesday as firefighters hosed down the smoldering woods surrounding his home. A night earlier, his neighbors used garden hoses and buckets of water to douse the flames.

"I cannot believe it - my house was surrounded, and my house did not go up,'' Pagan said. "It's pure luck, and God.''

Across the street, a stucco home was charred and crumbling. On it was duct-taped a bright red note from the building inspector: Totaled.

A few miles away, Barry Self, an off-duty Palm Bay police officer, was shoveling dirt over still-smoldering patches of woods across the street from his home. He and two neighbors also used garden hoses late into the night to ward off the fire as it skipped across their yards. Self lost his backyard fence and was without electricity Tuesday afternoon, but he said he considered himself fortunate.

"And we're lucky compared to a lot of people. I'm very lucky. I drove around this morning and saw a bunch of houses just totaled to the ground. It's unbelievable, it really is,'' Self said.

Palm Bay Fire Marshall Mike Cotoure said 62 homes there were destroyed, a loss of $9 million, and 100 more were damaged. At least four homes in the rest of the county were ruined, officials said.

Palm Bay Police Chief Bill Berger said investigators believe at least 11 fires were started intentionally, and announced a $15,000 reward already for the suspect's capture. He called for tips. "I believe this person is a trophy person. He's going to talk to somebody,'' Berger said.

Experts said the fires found ample fuel where structures meet Florida's forest. The state has not been able to hold controlled burns to cut back vegetation, as it used to, because of the development. So firefighters are battling palmetto palms that should be knee-high, but have been allowed to grow for 20 or 30 years, said Dale Armstrong, senior forester with state's Division of Forestry.

Also culprits are Florida's year-round growing season and waxy plants that can burn while still green, said Ken Outcalt, a research plant ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service. "The fuels in Florida are mostly live plants, unlike in the West where it's usually dead fuel that's accumulated underneath the trees,'' he said.

The Brevard County fires present two kinds of firefighting challenges simultaneously because the vegetation is mixed so closely with homes. The buildings impede traditional forest firefighting techniques such as plowing lines of dirt in the flames' path or lighting backfires, Outcalt said.

Armstrong said only about 15 percent of the approximately 10,000 acres burning were contained, but the fires had moved to more rural areas.

Though the high winds fueling the flames since the weekend had slowed significantly, officials worried about overnight flare-ups and the flames spreading quickly in the dry conditions. Embers and lit leaves could fly more than a mile from hot spots, making the fires nearly impossible to stop unless the weather changes, officials said.

"Until it rains, the threat is going to be ever-present,'' said State Emergency Management Director Craig Fugate. Forecasts show little chance of rain until at least the weekend.