A wildfire that claimed the lives of two forest rangers in Florida.

A wildfire in Florida took the lives of two forest rangers, as the state continues to be affected by more than 400 blazes. According to BBC news, “the rangers had been trying to contain a 12-acre(4.8-ha) blaze near the Georgia border, but the fire flared up and trapped them”. While trying to save Josh Burch, 31 and Brett Fulton, 52 two other individuals were also injured due to the fire. The two rangers who were trying to contain the fire were not just injured they were immediately killed.

State Forestry director Jim Karels told the Associated Press News Agency that “the weather can change in Florida very quickly and that’s what we experienced”. Investigators describe how “wildfires have burned more than 200,000 acres of land in Florida since 1 May 2011.
The fire known as the Blue Ribbon Fire in Florida’s Hamilton County which killed the two rangers  had previously been contained. It “was burning roughly 85 miles (136 km) north-east of the city of Tallahassee”. This has known to be the first time anyone working for the Florida Division of Forestry has died from tackling a blaze since the year 2000, when a pilot died from dumping water on a wildfire that took place near the town Fort Myers.

Wildfires across the country have been affecting residences, outbuildings and commercial properties. Many of these fires being so disastrous that homeowners are forced to move from their hometowns. Wildfires can be caused by many things some of which include lightning, volcanic activities and spontaneous combustion. The news about the wildfire in Florida had come as the responders continued to battle around thousands of fires in the region of Arizona, Texas and New Mexico.

In Texas a fast-moving fire in Grimes County destroyed thirty-five homes on Tuesday, after destroying more than 4,000 acres of land. A fire which started because homeowners lost control of a fire in their grill, near the town of Stoneham. Earlier this month, a huge wildfire had hit the state of Arizona forcing thousands from their homes. The blaze had raged for 11 days.

BBC news describes “the largest of the US wildfires is considered to be the Wallow Fire in eastern Arizona and Western New Mexico, which officials said on Tuesday had burned more than 525,000 acres”. The Wallow Fire is now eighty-two percent contained according to Azfamily.com. “Approximately 15,000 acres have burned in New Mexico; the fire’s now covers a total of 538,043 acres”. More than 7,000 firefighters are involved in Arizona and New Mexico to contain wildfires there and a total of 10,400 firefighters are involved in the efforts to contain the wildfires across the US.

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About the author

Jineta Raval

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