At least 51 houses lost or damaged south of Melbourne, Fla.

[Dave-Vero]

Southern Brevard County, Florida (Palm Bay, Malabar, Grant, Valkaria) had several arson fires yesterday during a spell of high winds, then fewer but bigger ones today with less wind but drier air.

Palm Bay is mostly a huge old subdivision where lots were sold, and actual building of houses was done individually, lot by lot. So there's a lot of empty lots full of overgrown, flammable vegetation. Same goes for the areas south of Palm Bay, except the lots are bigger and some land has been bought as green space. I think there'll be some concern about leaving the vegetation in such flammable condition, but if Florida history is any guide, nothing will be done, except that firefighting services will be cut back due to low tax revenues.

I-95 and the parallel US 1 have been closed much of the day, so the beachfront A1A is probably getting heavy traffic, and some traffic is evidently being shunted inland almost as far as Orlando (there aren't any north-south highways for quite a distance inland).

I trust that Dr. Brown's Valkaria Gardens (specializing in ti plants) is unharmed.

Here's the latest from WFTV

PALM BAY IN FLAMES

The focus Monday night remained on the Brevard County city of Palm Bay and its 92,000 residents. A total of 3,500 acres were burning. That covered three separate fires.

Fifty-one homes within the city were damaged or destroyed. Two cars, two motor homes and a boat also went up in flames. A thick, choking blanket of smoke covered the area as five fires burned. The Red Cross opened an emergency shelter...

The first fires started Sunday afternoon. At one point, nine were burning. Arson investigators believe they were set roughly an hour and a half apart throughout the day. Firefighters had them contained, but Monday's high winds and dry weather caused them to roar back to life and start their destructive march.

Investigators were receiving tips and working leads and said they had a possible suspect. Witnesses reported seeing a white male with brown hair driving a black Honda or Hyundai near one of the fires on Sunday. The witnesses said the man threw something out of the car shortly before the fire started. Anyone with information was asked to call CrimeLine at 1-800-423-TIPS. A $10,000 reward was posted.

"I think its sick," said Halie Vail, who had a neighbor lose a house. "I think they'll probably burn in Hell. They created Hell, they'll burn in Hell for it."

Some of the most dramatic images of the day came as a wall of flames nearly 70 feet high approached Bayside High School. Authorities had called for an evacuation of the campus and were scrambling to get the students moved as the fire bore down. Fire crews were able to battle back the blaze and no students were injured. The Brevard County School District cancelled classes at all Palm Bay schools for Tuesday

[Don Little]

Dave,

That's terrible to hear. Most of the wildfires out here are cause by arson also, it's unthinkable to think that someone can actually derive pleasure from ruining peoples lives and possibly even taking them.

How far were the fires from you? I hope no one was injured. I saw on the news today that the everglades were on fire also, Although there may not be any homes. I'm sure the impact on the wild life and plant species will be felt however. I hope everyones ok, keep us posted.

Don

[palmmermaid]

I drove home through this last Sunday. It was a nightmare!

Historically Florida has fires during the dry season. This keeps the undergrowth down so that the pines and palms can grow. That is why pines and Serenoa repens are so fire-proof. Some of the Pinus species cones won't open until a fire comes through. And the Serenoas can withstand up to 800 degrees! My guess is the ones in the burn areas will leave out in a couple of week. When we humans build houses so that the Forestry Division can't do controlled burns (as is the case here), then wildfires (either set by arsonists or nature) cause the kinds of problems these fires did.

The Everglades are buring on the south west side of Lake Okeechobee now. These fires are worse because they are peat fires. You can't really put them out because they are burning underground. Only flooding the area will extinguish the fires. My uncle was a ranger in Taylor county where I grew up. There was a fire in a swampy area known as San Pedro Bay one winter. It burned for 3 months - until the rains came and flooded the area.