Trees Downed During Hurricane Yan Make Potential SWFL Wildfires More Dangerous

CAPE CORAL, Florida. It’s been five months since Hurricane Yan hit southwest Florida, and the hurricane has severely damaged homes and infrastructure, knocking down thousands of acres of trees. These trees are now being turned into fuel for potential forest fires.

The Florida Forest Service reports that the 4th Street Fire in Cape Coral, which was clearly visible from Pine Island Road and burned nearly 40 acres in early February, was a perfect example of how wildfires behave in the post-Januan the world.

“It almost created a grid where all the trees are intertwined with each other,” said wildfire mitigation specialist Michael Harris.

Trees flew in all directions as the Florida Forest Service drove Fox 4 meteorologist Andrew Shipley along the fire department’s bulldozing lines on 4th Street. Harris noted this particular area after Yan as a potential problem area.

“We did a lot of reconnaissance after Jan to identify those areas,” Harris said. “So when we have a fire here, we want to send an adequate response right away.”

Trees felled after Yang not only slow down firefighting, but also make them more dangerous. Trees are still falling inside the scar from the 4th street fire. Falling trees are always dangerous for firefighters, but in a post-Janian world, this danger is even greater.

“And if that tree breaks free and falls on someone or a vehicle, you could have health or equipment issues,” Harris said.

Given that these fallen trees are potential problem areas, the Forest Service is looking into mitigation work to reduce the hazard, but this could take some time with limited resources.

“Over the next few years, as we start doing some mitigation work in these areas, we are going to do that and try to reduce some of the extreme fires we might have,” Harris said.

Harris tells Fox 4 that they will be dealing with this Hurricane Yan tree over the next few fire seasons, making the fire more difficult to put out and more dangerous.