OCHOPEE — With more than half of the nearly 20,000-acre Sandy Fire now contained, officials on Monday rescinded the evacuation plan put in place more than a week-and-a-half ago.
All residents within the impacted area have been updated on the change in evacuation status. Earlier, on Sunday, fire managers downgraded the Sandy Wildfire Evacuation Plan to Phase One of three phases.
The fire, which started May 1, was reported at 19,814 acres and 52% contained by Monday night.
Riki Hoopes, U.S. National Parks wildfire information officer, said some precipitation was observed over the fire area on Monday and that crews were expected to continue to hold and improve the perimeter of the fire over the next several days.
Ground and aviation resources were also continuing to use suppression burn-out operations to clean up unburned pockets of fuel within the fire perimeter to decrease the risk of fire spotting over the control lines.
Anatomy of a wildfire:
- Wildfire in Big Cypress prompts section of trails, roads closed
- Fire crews providing structure protection on Big Cypress blaze
- Evacuation plans in place as wildfire in Big Cypress NP spreads
- Sandy Fire in Big Cypress near Ochopee grows to 5,500 acres
- Uncontrolled Sandy Fire grows to 8,400 acres despite weeklong containment efforts
- Fire grows over 10,000 acres, containment increases
- Sandy Fire over 11,000 acres, some residents urged to leave
- Sandy Fire grows to more than 15,000 acres
- How wildfires start in Florida
- Drones being used to fight Sandy Fire
- Crews make significant headway on Sandy Fire
Hoopes said that beginning on Tuesday and due to the decrease in complexity, the fire will be managed by a local Type 4 Incident Management Team. Type 4 teams are operated on a city, county, or fire district level.
Closures remain in effect west of 11 Mile Road, north of US41, east of Monument Trail, and south of Mud Lake, Little Deer, Oasis Trail and Lost Dog, including the Florida Trail from Oasis Visitor Center to I75 (MM63).
Visitors may continue to see smoke from the roadways and the risk of smoke continues to remain the biggest concern. Travelers should use caution throughout the impacted area.
Copyright 2023 WGCU. To see more, visit WGCU.
