ATV Florida Forum

238 + active fires.   ATV are the problem of all evil I tell ya.

It was probably George Bush riding on his YFZ that caused it.

   I thought I saw Air Force 1 flying kinda low!!

now comeon, you know the pres is smarter than that,,,he would be riding a Honda.

;-)

Id@

It said 260 earlier?

Yeah all today it smelled like smoke and it was raining ashes, weird stuff.

WHY IS IT THAT ITS ALWAYS US ATV RIDERS THAT START THE FIRES. THEY CANT FIND ANYBODY ELSE TO BLAME. WAT ABOUT THE BEER BOTTLES AND THE CIGARETTE BUTTS OR GLASS WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE OUR FAULT OF ALL THE FIRES?

Picayune Strand is on fire (what used to be BADLUCK in Naples)

If you live in NAPLES, FORT MYERS, PORT CHARLOTTE OR HENDRY it looks like all of SOUTH WEST FL is on fire. You can not see 1/8 of a mile ahead of you. It's bad over here.

it is horrible here in polk county, smoke every where you look, like a haze. not sure where its all comin from, im guessin ga cause wind is from the north.

here in miami its horrible.I was on the turnpike and it was really bad

yet its beautiful outin martin county

it was real bad in pinellas today,the wind switched around comin off the gulf now cleared it up pretty good.

Thanks for the Gulf breeze to day. It was bad in Bradenton today.
Felt like i was in the infield at a Nascar track in the winter time .

Shoot, it's bad here in Broward too, and there isn't any fires in Broward.  It's all coming from west coast. 

And yea, it appears Florida is on Fire, Gov stated on the news, there are currently 210 fires in the State of Florida.  So let's see between all the fires, and the east coast beaches being taken way back to see, where is Florida....  Pretty weird stuff today, hey.....

Well, atleast we can so no hurricanes, but that thing of the east coast sure looks familar.  All I can say, I sure hopes it decides to stop of Florida for about a week, and rain, rain, and then rain some more. 

The real irony is that central planes of the US, is having serious flooding. 

They closed I75 this afternoon between University and Fruitville exits.
  (http://www.baynews9.com/images/news/2007/5/8/blazes2.jpg)

Whew, I thought it was a house fire. The smoke is so thick out here, I thought it was local for sure.

Wind must be blowing due east.

I'm telling you, it ain't usually this bad with broward glades fire.... pretty spooky looking outside, and stink....

The ash that was falling all this morning and afternoon sticks to everything.  The cars are a mess and think of if it sticks to a car what must it be like in our lungs breathing it all day.

yea, my local riding spot isd burning down rite now

With all this smoke around here, I thought my fiance was cooking.

lol.

LOL

now that was funny lol 8)

The smoke had reached all the way to Islamorada last night.  We went to the Islamorada Fish Co. for a sunset dinner and the smoke/haze was thick.  This morning it was really thick in Homestead.  I thought a fire had started locally.  To top it off, the Coast Guard is conducting a hurricane excerise this week and our drill is showing a Cat 4 hurricane reaching landfall over Palm Beach right now.  The drill is sureal and bringing back memories.  I'm going to fire up my generator tonight to ensure it is functioning. :o

Chillin! You better quit lighting farts and starting all these fires!

oh man! that's cold.......

poor guy...send that woman to WTS...(wife training school)

ps How many many men does it take to unscrew a cap off a beer bottle?



Answer-None...the pregnant dog better bring it opened

hey mod, what a nice change of words...I feel so warm and fuzzy now...LOL

it wasnt a mod, it is automatic.

My truck is covered in Ash from the fires. Looks like they are blaming cigarette smokers on some of them instead of atv's

I know I was a PTO meeting today, and we looked at the TV and saw Florida with the big round circle around it, and I said where there's the Florida we all know all to well.   Hopefully, we will get some dang ran....  let's all go out in our back yards and a do an indian rain dance....

hopefully this namd storm will bring a lot of rain.  They said we should get some rain from it.

I am sorry but I just can't believe how this stuff is.  Oh my gosh, you walk out side, and you can actually taste it in your mouth, man it is gross.  Never seen it this bad, especially for fires so far way, I think every fire in florida is blowing it's smoke to Broward, it is really nasty.... :Dead.gif

Excuse me    I farted.  LOL

Cigarette smokers on atv's  ::)

mine too. i was pissed when i got outside this mornin. it looked like someone painted white and black spots all over it. time for a washin.  :-\

People throwing out cigarettes. I was on I-75 yesterday and low and behold, passing this trucker and he flicks out his cigarette. Good way to start more fires. If you must smoke, get a plastic pepsi bottle or something with a lid and put water in it, then place your cigarette there until you can dump it out.

I have to agree.  I see this happen all the time and they don't just go out right away, they keep burning for a while. 

its all foggy in boca now too

YEah i can even see smoke here in mcalpin  but when i went branford
today over by my sister elm school you can even see orange skies to east of branford and
it was raining with small falling ashes and early before hour later it was where yellow and orange skies
you can see and it was like foggy orange you can't see the roads in branford around 1:30pm between 2pm hour.

I went pull it off libary today and the way smoke on weather.com
it looks going be 3 or 4 days with same ole stuff smoke coming from clay county and lake city
area and bradford county and  all way to gainesvile to ocala can see this stuff maybe orlando area can see this smoke coming from north all from south ga to jax, and  untill tropical storm hits south daytona beach  thats only when people need watch  wildfires all  over north central florida
it could switch to when wind  is blowing to west or northwest. I know it's pretty dry here
the lasttime we had wildfire like this was back in 1998 when it was 12miles way
over in mayo area near mallory swamp area. Too bad we aren't getting this rain from
tropical storm and this bad news for all people that lived in from jax to ocala
and east of mayo and masion areas. So if we don't any good rain storms soon,we are going
be flare up here and have pretty bad major hurrcaine season through out whole north central florida
here. Yeah this even harded for all crop farmers here water every day and if suwwnnee river runs low
or spring system then we might have to limted our suppy here to use it less.

I remeber my old teacher down south many years ago and he told me
lake ockebee was pretty low back in 70's and all over south florida
they had limted there water suppys and watering lawn so much becuase lake was pretty
low on demand back then.

As ashes continue to fall... we need a lot of rain.  Tomorrow they called for the smoke and ash to be worse than it was today.

Been wondering what has been going on lately ................. now I understand it all  ;D  ;D Good to have ya back!!!

 DR Walum

well we are back to been smoky again.  Parrish Florida!

Just saw that fire map on TV, weird how we are the only ones not on fire. SE Florida.

just saw in the news the storm is shifting the winds.  Smoke is supposed to be real bad tomorrow.

Good luck everyone!

Down here in Broward, taking my son and neighbor to school.  The neighbor kid says, "wow, look at the moon, way cool", and I looked and said no, that's the sun.  They were like whoa....  It did look pretty wild, like a big red ball in the sky. 

I know what you mean about those maps, let's see before we were known as the hurricane state, now we are known as the red planet. 

All we can do is pray for a God's miracle of a lot of rain.  They just put us in phase 3 water restrictions, us and PB I believe.  Can only water on Sat for odd number homes, and Sun for even number homes.  They are talking about phase 4, which I have no idea what that is.  If you ask me, if they are so concerned about the water usage, they need to enforcing the ones that they have.  I constantly see so many people just ignoring the water restrictions, and usually it is a business.  If the don't enforce it, what is the sense of having them.

Bring on the rain......

The sunset was truly incredible last evening. I could only stand in awe of it as it slipped down the western horizon.

Weird thing about all this, not a lick of smoke was seen out at Macs yesterday.

Phase4 means you can water one day out of the week, but I ask you all to refrain because all the gators are piling up in the last remaining waterholes and it is making riding more scary than ever. ;)
The grass will green up when it starts raining in only three more weeks....crossfingers

Yea but they just put us (including you) on Phase 3, effective May 16th, can only water one day a week.  Now they are talking about possibly phase 4.  So I guess phase 4 is that you can only have rock gardens, because there will be zero watering???? 

Yikes, I guess you are right. Personally, I don't have sprinklers and have never needed them. I just got 1.5" rain the other day, my plants are all green and smiling again. It was getting bad though.
Two or three weeks from now we will be crying about the daily rainstorms, :crossfingers

I wonder if code enforcement will be running around citing people for brown lawns...? :) LOL

I saw that this morning I was like that sun is looking real weird.  Its stil so smokey here everywhere you look its like fog.

It's driving me crazy WHERE'S THE MUD?!! lol. The hump is like a dust bowl.

So i feel like i've been smoking for 20 years. This sucks.

I just spent 4 hours in my garage in this smoke trying to get my '73 ST90 running. I got a massive headache and can't seem to think anymore. I thought it was going to get better later in the day, but it looks worse here in north Tampa. Time to stay inside!!

Wildfires in our area even north of lake city FL area!!

I took a day off today from vocational school in Lake city
and this morning around 10:30am I took some two photos
showing how bad the smoke here at house here.http://uploadingit.com/files/497/picsmoke.JPG
I know it was pretty bad you can even smell the smoke in the house
and went to pick up my sister in Branford and they evacuate all schools in Suwwanee County today.

I'll talk my friend on the phone while ago in Lake city he's about 5 or 6 miles from where the wildfire is outby
I10 and that wildfire is going to hit the whole entire Lake City in the next few days my friend told me on the phone while ago
he was watching the local news in Gainesville channel 20 plus I'm watching it right now to get an idea what the heck going on here.

I know they were saying on the news today the smoke from North of Lake city can be seen
all the way down Miami and Tampa Bay areas. Today I left the house today to go to perry which is about 40 to 50 miles
almost right near Keaton beach area and how to stay over there for three or four hours to shop at a local Wal-Mart and walked around in a Kmart
to relief from the smoke it was killing me over here in McAlpin, Florida area and
over there by the Gulf the air was pretty cleaner over there today. Around 12 o'clock this afternoon, my friend from Lake city called me
earlier today on mom's cell phone he was telling me the smoke was pretty bad and pitch black outside and he saw falling ashes leaves
and parsley weeds sticks this morning. Last night here at the house I could see small tiny and ashes landing on my mom's car
look like little snowflakes, but I haven't seen this kind a wildfire with falling ashes like this since back in 1998.

They were talking about this Sunday is going to rain, but probably possibly not because every time the rain has been trying do this for the last three months
has been drying off the Gulf. Before I came home today from Perry here at house, I saw a cnn news helicopter heading east from McAlpin to Lake City looks like,
I guess we are going hit national news tonight the way it looks like the way the wildfires going on over Lake City.

I was listening to the local radio all day today and the guy from big 98 from the kicking Kevin guy
and one of his friends saying on the radio this afternoon telling other friends we need Gatorade rain
to do some rain dances, I heard people all over live Oak on the radio station was donating some Gatorade
to the Columbia County firefighters the ones are fighting the wildfires over in northern Columbia County today
and I was watching the news while ago the whole entire northern Columbia County is burned up complete gone
North Interstate 10. There are alot of people are having alot side effects from the smoke today such as alot of headaches and
choking out there lungs today.


Thanks,
Richard

Right now, it's pretty less  smoke here since early today.
You  guys should goto  the tates hell
this weekend bescuase the air is cleaner over there.
Yeah the air was pretty darn toxic today the way it smells..



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http://www.lakecityreporter.com/
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FIRE BULLETIN, 6:18 P.M., FRIDAY: Winds remained calm in Columbia County between the hours of 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., the timeframe officials feared might spark the fires with gusty breezes. That didn't happen and officials said the fires remained slow-burning with about 82,500 acres involved. Officials said firefighters were holding their own with the blaze and hoping for continued good weather.

UPDATE, 6:07 P.M., FRIDAY: The U.S. Forestry Service closed all areas of the Osceola National Forest north of Interstate 10 to public use. A federal mandate was set issuing the order on Friday afternoon. The order remains in effect until further notice. The mandate was issued because of the extreme fire danger in the forest. The Osceola National Forest covers 142,000 acres in several counties in North Florida. Law enforcement personnel and firefighters performing their job duties are exempt from the mandate.

UPDATE, 4:59 P.M., FRIDAY: An automated calling system at the sheriff's office has inadvertently instructed many residents in Columbia County to evacuate their homes. Many random residents received calls in the middle of the night from the computer recording. The system malfunctioned and has been repaired. The mandatory evacuation area continues to be north of Interstate 10 in the vicinity of U.S. 441.

This satellite photo of Florida taken Friday afternoon shows smoke bleeding into the state from Georgia and from fires in Columbia County. Nearly 300 square miles in Florida and Georgia have been charred and the blazes continue. Sub-tropical depression Andrea, which was recently downgraded, spins in the Atlantic, but did not provide any significant rain to Florida. NASA/Associated Press
Look at pic We are in smoke..
http://www.lakecityreporter.com/content/articles/2007/05/11/news/top_story/news01.jpg

I just came from Live Oak about an hour ago it was pretty dang bad
you couldn't  see the high school and whole entire Live Oak is cover with intense white smoke
and people wearing cover masks and all the crazy teenagers are playing out in streets in  this kind of stuff. 
The news media is not showing very much on TV
it's only the local news stations in Florida are  showing alot of it, especially on Gainesville Station channel 20
and I haven't seen this bad here before here on the farm since back in 1998 when they had that wildfire down there in mayo florida near the Mallory Swamp area back manys years ago.

Last night, the smoke was here in house again
and I couldn't sleep last night very much here because I was   having so much headaches :'(
from breathing smoke last night and I watch my show around like 11 o'clock last night
and took a shower and went to bed and cover the covers over my face and around seven o'clock this morning I woke up again
I saw orange flare skies to the east of here on the horizon and I went back to bed I didn't got up until 10 o'clock this morning.
I was watching the weather Channel this morning the Florida Highway Patrol was on TV this morning in Columbia County
that's over in Lake city area and I'll I was talking with my friend yesterday about wildfires he has a camper in case the wildfires get worse over his house
but I invited him to stay if he gets evacuated in case the worst scenario that happens.

But right now, about 25 minutes ago my weather radio went off and they were saying
they  shut down I10 and I75 between and they said the wildfires in that area from the smoke was so bad
from dense fog and same here in  Live Oak too you couldn't see 3 miles of it.

But, if smoke gets pretty bad here again  if i can't breathe again like what happened last night.  Then i'll
evacuated ASAP stay somewhere else like a hotel or storm shelter to relief the smoke.

Right now, I'm leaving the air vents on for the rest of the day to air out the smoke,
but it ain't so bad right now from last night's smoke was pretty bad you can breathing in house.
Yeah, the stores here in Live Oak you can see the smoke coming through the the air-conditioned vents
here at Winn-Dixie grocery store and that's how bad smoke outside but the way it looks like they probably will shut down whole entire live Oak soon
they shut down whole entire stores here in Lake City today due to the smoke from the wildfires to the north of them.

Well, here's a video to give you an idea how bad the smoke is here in McAlpin during 1pm et this afternoon
here at the house so it's all over youtube right now.


(Video1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ww9USzTKxmM

(Video 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NooCY-FJji4

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070513/ap_on_re_us/wildfires

Fla. highways remain closed due to fires 22 minutes ago
 


LAKE CITY, Fla. - Authorities briefly reopened two highways crossing north Florida into Georgia on Sunday before dense wildfire smoke forced them to again halt traffic, while hundreds of Florida residents waited to return to their threatened homes.

   
 
 
Officials said Sunday that the wildfire that had raced through the Okefenokee Swamp in southeast Georgia and into Florida had charred more than 233,700 acres — or about 365 square miles — since it was started by lightning a week ago.

Officials warned that storms in the forecast Sunday could bring either much-needed rain or lightning.

Authorities reopened 90 miles of Interstates 75 and 10 for a couple of hours Sunday morning after wind helped push the heavy smoke away from the highways. But they were later forced to close 35 miles of I-75 from the Florida-Georgia state line to Lake City, Fla., as well as a 40-mile stretch of I-10 in Florida, from Live Oak to Sanderson.

A 15-mile stretch of I-75 from Valdosta, Ga., to the Florida state line remained open Sunday.

About 570 residents were not being allowed to return to 150 homes evacuated between I-10 and the Florida-Georgia state line.

Firefighters working Saturday and through the night to control the blaze got help from previous prescribed burns near Lake City, Florida officials said.

"The fire burned into an area of the Osceola National Forest that had done a prescribed burn in the winter, so there was less fuel to burn," said C.J. Norvell, part of a joint federal-state forestry management team.

The fire started May 5 in the middle of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. It took just six days to grow larger than another wildfire that has burned nearly 121,000 acres of Georgia forest and swampland over more than three weeks. The small fire was started by a tree falling on a power line.

The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge and Georgia's Steven C. Foster State Park inside it remained closed.

Haze from the fires had traveled as far south as the Miami area, about 340 miles away.

Elsewhere, a blaze feeding on drought-stricken forest in northern Minnesota was only 15 percent contained as of Sunday. Meteorologists said there was a 40 percent of thunderstorms Sunday. They could produce the first significant rainfall in the parched area in almost a week, but the hope of rain was outweighed by the threat of wind gusting to 25 mph.

"We don't think the rain is going to help us a whole lot," said Mark Van Every, a spokesman for the firefighting effort.

The fire had closed about half of the 57-mile-long Gunflint Trail, a key route from Grand Marais into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area wilderness that is dotted with resorts and lake homes.

Officials said Sunday the fire had destroyed 133 buildings, including 61 residences. They estimated the value of buildings lost at $3.7 million.

Off the coast of Southern California, continued cool weather Sunday helped firefighters on Santa Catalina Island maintain control of a blaze that had threatened the resort community of Avalon.

The 4,200-acre or 6.5-square-mile fire was 69 percent contained Sunday and was expected to be encircled by Tuesday evening, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Scott Ross said. One home and six businesses burned Thursday but no one was seriously injured.

Businesses were open again in the seaside resort town of Avalon as most of the 4,000 evacuated residents had returned to the island, where damage was estimated at $2.1 million.
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Well the rain isn't happing here today yeah the weather is all a lied,plus smoke
is start to building up here again it was alot less smoke this morning.Now it's getting worst
with smoke here.