Jensen Beach brush fire contained

JENSEN BEACH, Fla. -  The Florida Forest Service and Martin County Fire-Rescue will be keeping their eyes Monday night on a brush fire in Jensen Beach.

Around 1:30, the first calls came in that fire had broken out in the Savannahs Preserve State Park just north of Jensen Beach Boulevard.

The fire has grown to 35 acres, and at one point was threatening five homes.  As of 6 p.m., it was 100-percent contained.

Reginald Dotson was out with his garden hose watering down his property. "Yeah it's scary.   This time of year it's dry but you can't stop Mother Nature," he said.

Across a dirt path, Willis Wiley was scratching his head in amazement.  The fire had been knocked down literally at his back door.

"You see big billowing smoke.  A big black cloud.  So the first thing I did was call 9-1-1 and wait for them (firefighters) to get here.  By the time they did, it had spread," said Wiley.

The Florida Forest Service says work they had done six months ago in preparation for the dry season helped.  A number of firebreaks had been set up in the preserve that helped prevent the spread of the fire.  Still, with the amount of unburned vegetation, crews add this fire still needs to be watched.