PALM BAY, Fla. – As dry conditions keep the fire danger high in Central Florida, Palm Bay Fire Rescue is staying very busy protecting lives and property.
Fortunately, no one was hurt during the three brush fires that broke out in the city on Wednesday.
At least one of those scenes was still active Thursday as crews put out the hot spots on the fire in the woods near Babcock Street and Malabar Road.
Watch the video below to see how new resources are helping in the brush fire fight.
News 6 reporter James Sparvero watched on Interstate Court alongside assistant fire chief John Ringleb.
“We’re using an elevated stream here to get more into the center of where the fire was yesterday to make sure the area is completely deluged so that any potential fire threat going forward is gone,” Ringleb explained.
The assistant chief said crews let a brush fire in the Compound part of the city burn itself out since the location wasn’t a threat to structures.
Meanwhile, on Onyx Drive, firefighters asked neighbors to evacuate while they battled a brush fire in the woods across a canal from their homes.
Mike Rook credited fire rescue with saving his property.
“If it came any closer, I was getting out of Dodge,” Rook said.
Ringleb said the canal protected the residents.
“That canal there gave us just enough time to deploy hose lines into those backyards,” he said.
Ringleb also talked about the difficulty of spreading lines thin, working multiple fires in different parts of the city at the same time.
“I credit the on-duty battalion chiefs,” he said. “They really allocated the resources they had in the critical spots.”
Ringleb said building new fire stations, like on Palm Bay Road, that’s currently under construction, will help add to their resources.
Last summer, the city said Palm Bay’s grown so much — more than 20 percent in just the last five years —that some emergency response times were taking as long as 20 minutes.
Ringleb said they are improving.
“We are actively implementing more units into our city so we’re upstaffing into those squads, and we’re also bringing new engines into the city, as well, to meet our demands,” he said.
