Bay County fire 50% contained, joint agency efforts continue to combat blaze
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – A joint collaboration between the Florida Forest Service and several other Bay County agencies resulted in a diligent response to a growing blaze.
The flames were centered in the area around County Road 2301 and Clayton Road.
'We have currently 17 ground support resources working this fire, that includes supervisors, mechanics, and dozers, and we have two aerial support working the fire. As the fire grew, we definitely realized that we needed to send more resources. And that's what our incident commander did,' Florida Forest Service Public Information Officer Aleese Maples said.
A chopper scooped up water from a nearby retention pond and dumped it on localized hot spots.
Bay County Sheriff's deputies oversaw necessary evacuations and traffic detours. The Bay County Fire Department protected nearby structures from the fire.
Brush fire shuts down traffic in Bay County
'We had ten to 15 structures threatened during the fire. We had a lot of different collaborations working on structure protection. We had our aerial support. We also had the Bay County fire department here working the fire,' Maples said.
Maples says it's still unclear what started the fire.
'There's a lot of heavy blowdown still in this area from Hurricane Michael. So it becomes very challenging to navigate the area with our equipment. So we definitely sent the resources that we needed and heavier equipment, too,' Maples added.
As of 7 pm Thursday, County Road 2301 and County Road 388 were still closed to traffic due to heavy smoke and poor visibility.
Firefighters say the fire is now about 50% contained.
News 13 will keep an eye on the fire and provide an update on Friday morning.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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