A1A South

The fire slithers just beneath the surface until the earth boils and smoke rises from the soil. The smell in the air is sour and strange – a disturbing scent that tells firefighters they are facing no average blaze.

Such are the signs of a muck fire, a peculiar and dangerous force of nature that over the years has burned the legs of firefighters, incinerated forests’ worth of trees within minutes and is now turning dried-up parts of Lake Okeechobee into a blackish-orange stream of burning muck.

“It stinks and it itches,” said John Phillips, a ranger with Florida’s Division of Forestry, volunteer Glades County firefighter and incident commander for a 5,800-acre blaze that ignited this week. “You remember the smell the rest of your life.”

As the fire scorching the edge of Lake Okeechobee between Moore Haven and Clewiston burned for a fifth day Thursday, parts of it slipped farther beneath the thick black muck until some spots in the lake bed looked like a bubbling tar pit.

Without steady rain, the fire could burn for one or two months, experts say.

Muck fires are known for their longevity and ability to surprise.

One can burn for months and rekindle surface wildfires even when no flames are visible. They attack tree roots until trees are reduced to piles of fast-burning wood that strengthen and spread fire.

The hidden blazes transfer heat to the surface, fueled by oxygen that seeps into the vegetation where lake water once flowed, causing underground embers to smolder for weeks.

Muck is soil rich in carbon-based compounds from dead plants and organisms. The compounds usually make up more than a third of the soil content.

Falling trees and destabilized ground can make it nearly impossible to bring firefighting equipment into a forested area where a muck fire is burning. Also, to extinguish a muck fire, the ground must be thoroughly soaked.

Phillips said a firefighter fell knee-deep into hot ash while fighting a muck fire a few years ago.

“It’s a very dangerous fire when it gets into the muck,” said Melissa Yunas, wildfire mitigation specialist for the Division of Forestry. “Unless we get some good rain, it could take up to a month, possibly two months” to go out.

The firefighters now standing by near Lake Okeechobee are not trying to extinguish the muck fire because it is surrounded by a canal and not endangering property.

The fire may grow to as much as 15,000 acres in the next few days.

Normally, authorities might try to flood the fire zone with enough water to overwhelm the flames. But the current water shortage means there’s not enough to do the job.

To make matters worse, shifting winds will likely tinge the air over much of South Florida with foul-smelling smoke from the fire this weekend.

The National Weather Service forecasts a 30 percent chance of rain today and Monday, but the storms probably won’t produce the 1 to 2 inches needed to put out the fire.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t take too long,” Phillips said.

Source: Palm Beach Post

In the meantime, the water levels in Lake Okechobee are being kept low because the dike is in dire need of repair.