FLORIDA CITY, Fla. – The only ways in and out of the Florida Keys were once again closed due to a large brush fire in far south Miami-Dade County Thursday.
U.S. 1 finally reopened later in the evening, allowing a flow of cars to travel to and from the Keys.
Two days into the firefight, the flames are 30% contained and has now burned 25,000 acres. Both U.S. 1 and Card Sound Road, heading into Key Largo, were closed as of around noon. Intermittent closures have kept people from going in and out of the Keys.
5 p.m. report:
“I’m going to Miami from Cayo Largo,” driver Javier Diaz said, calling the key by its Spanish name. “I stay(ed) seven hours in the traffic.”
Officials with the Florida Forest Service and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue say the fire owes its intensity to strong winds, high temperatures and dry conditions.
“I think it’s basically the ideal conditions” for a fire to burn, Jaime Vega, a Miami-Dade firefighter, told Local 10 News.
Firefighters are using water trucks to reach remote areas without hydrants.
“It’s been dry quite a bit. So what we’ve been doing is pretty much around the clock,” Vega said. “We’re relieving crews and trying to basically end up putting (the flames) out as quickly as possible.”
Florida Power & Light crews also made their way into the fire zone to areas where flames were affecting power lines.
Helicopter crews were using buckets of water to dump into the worst areas and while they tackled some flames, others popped up elsewhere, carried by wind and falling embers from the sky.
“We have drones that are available to us,” Vega said. “Basically, we could end up seeing exactly where they’re at.”
There were also concerns among those attending the NASCAR Cup series at the Homestead Miami Speedway, where access to the track was limited, according to those planning to work at the race.
“It’s affecting us with time wise, trying to get with our trucks and they have to get on the field and they have to park at a certain time and then we have more work piled up, and it kind of sucks for us because we have more work,” Jesus Curillo, with Platinum Mobile LLC, said.
Officials in Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys have urged residents to closely monitor the rapidly changing conditions.