BOCA RATON, Fla. — A brush fire that started overnight Thursday in the middle of a busy part of Boca Raton is contained, but not extinguished as of Friday morning, a city official said.
Anne Marie Connolly, the public information officer for the city of Boca Raton, said crews from Boca Raton Fire Rescue will be at the Yamato Scrub Natural Area throughout the day.
Boca Raton Fire Rescue said the fire has grown to 10 acres. It's burning in a scrub area where there is plenty of dried-out vegetation and gusty winds fanning the flames.
It took firefighters from Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Palm Beach County Fire Rescue several hours to control and put it out earlier in the day. However, it flared up a few hours later.
"They have been on it, but the winds today have been really, really bad," Alaine Fitzgerald, who lives nearby at the Boca Golf and Tennis Country Club, said. "It's scary. It's right next to a Costco."
"At this time, we're coming up to the height of brush season where the rain isn't here, but the heat is and the humidity isn't there either," Capt. Thomas Reyes with Palm Beach County Fire Rescue said. "When you get drier brush, the fires take off a lot quicker."
Careful eyes and equipment were still standing by during the day making sure nothing new started in the wild area that is full of life, according to Alona Abbady Martinez, the editor of the Boca Raton Observer. Her office is on the edge of the natural area.
"We've seen a pair of bobcats occasionally come out, usually very lazily in the middle of the day," Abbady Martinez said.
The ripe conditions for fires were also evident in Indian River County this past weekend when a brush fire sparked up.
"Never in my entire life have I seen something like this," Juan Barrull, who was visiting family in Boca Raton, said. "We just saw this, and we cannot believe it at all."
Firefighters said this happens annually in the spring just before Florida's rainy season begins. Fire officials said this is the time for residents to take precautions.
"The biggest thing is the 20 feet around your house really should be cleared of as much dry brush as possible and especially the area within 5 to 7 feet of your house," Reyes said.
How the fire in Boca Raton started is still being investigated.
Fire officials said a smaller brush fire that began a couple of days ago near Loxahatchee started with power lines touching a tree limb.