Thousands of acres near Panama City are set on fire as Florida Panhandle wildfires continue

The most prominent fire, the Bertha Swamp Road Fire, expanded over the weekend and remains a threat, according to Governor Ron DeSantis.

“The Bertha Swamp (Road) Fire is about 9,000 acres and it’s about 10% contained, and so when you go out and look at it, you know it’s a big boy, and it’s raging really fast,” DeSantis said Sunday. “Today is the perfect day to move these types of fires, unfortunately. You have very dry conditions and you have a lot of wind.”

The fire, which started in Gulf County, has spread to neighboring Bay and Calhoun counties, just east of Panama City, according to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

DeSantis extended the state of emergency to all three counties on Saturday.

“Right now, of course, the main focus is to get the fire under control, but we’re raising resources and we’re going to provide everything the people need here in northwest Florida,” DeSantis said Saturday.

There is no timeline on when residents will be allowed to return home, according to a report from the Florida Forest Service.

Another fire even closer to Panama City, the Adkins Avenue brand in Bay County, was curtailed 35% on Sunday, FFS said. Two houses were destroyed and twelve others damaged.

Authorities noted that fuel in the form of dead trees on the ground and leftover debris from 2018’s Hurricane Michael, along with low humidity and high winds, contributed to the fire’s intensity.

The Category 5 storm “left 2.8 million hectares of trees bruised and uprooted,” state commissioner for Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried said on Saturday.

“Michael’s scrap wood makes it very difficult to fight wildfires in our area,” Bay County emergency services said in a statement. “Fires that would normally be contained are growing rapidly because there is so much fuel on the ground.”

More materials are arriving to fight the flames

Additional resources have been brought to the area to fight the fires, DeSantis said, noting that some first responders had suffered injuries.

“We have four National Guard air forces: two Black Hawks and two Chinooks. They work and have a positive impact,” DeSantis said. Crews have dropped more than 103,000 gallons of water on the Atkins Avenue fire since Friday, officials said.

The situation on the ground remains dynamic and changes are needed very quickly, Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said Sunday.

“Last night we had to initiate an evacuation in the Bear Creek area as a result of the fire up there getting close. We had to initiate a number of additional evacuations today due to a fire in the Tram Road area,” Ford said, adding crews “are still fighting that right now.”

Ford also said the Bay County Jail is “not in immediate danger, but we have put in place a very robust plan” and will have buses “on standby” if that (evacuation) becomes necessary.

Bay County Emergency Services said on Sunday that: an additional fire in the area germinated, covering an area of about 200 acres and 10% landlocked. Evacuations from a nursing home nearby were underway, the service said.

Bay County Emergency Services chief Brad Monroe said the situation in his county remains dire and encouraged residents to follow evacuation orders.

“The Bertha Swamp Fire is now 9,000 acres,” Monroe said Sunday. “It’s just hard to believe that something can be that big. When you fly around it, it’s just incredible. It’s hard to comprehend how big, strong and fierce this fire is, and the wind has been the last few days. That we expect again tomorrow.”

Investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire and a fire ban has been issued for Bay County. There are currently 168 wildfires burning 15,300 acres across Florida as of Sunday, FFS said.

DailyExpertNews’s Tina Burnside, Claudia Dominguez and Paradise Afshar contributed to this report.