Thursday, June 08, 2006

45-Acre Wildfire and Broken AC

I wrote this yesterday and I was going to post it directly afterward, but blogger.com was being stubborn and it wouldn't let me sign in...

My sister called me a few minutes ago and told me that she was seeing a huge plume of smoke off of US1, only a mile away from her home. My brother-in-law was actually driving through it and was stopped by police, who told him that there was a fire in the area (nah, really??). I logged on to FirstCoastNews.com and read that the fire was near US1 and Pine Island Road, very near my sister's house. I have also learned that US1 has been closed from CR210 south to International Golf Parkway (Nine Mile Road). I am currently tracking the smoke plume on radar and watching it advance toward my house along with the seabreeze. I can see some smoke on the horizon and it should be here within an hour. All I can say is I hope this isn't another 1998, and I sure hope it misses my sister's neighborhood. On top of all this, the air conditioning just broke in my house...well actually it's BEEN broken for 10 years with intermittent periods of working condition...and it's getting really hot. I'll update later.

Update: Forestry officials say the fire is now contained, but it still has the possibility of flaring up today...hopefully the seabreeze won't fan the flames and cause it to spread out of control again. I could still smell smoke this morning, but that is now gone for the most part, and US1 has been re-opened. St. Johns County, along with many other Florida counties, is still under a burn ban, so don't burn anything!!!

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