FORT MEADE — After 12 hours of work, firefighters brought a 2,100- to 2,500-acre wildfire under control about 5 a.m. Tuesday off Fort Green Road, north of Bowling Green.
The fast-moving fire had threatened three homes but they were protected by Polk County Fire Rescue and Florida Forest Service crews so there was no damage, said Todd Chlanda, wildlife mitigation specialist and public information officer with the Florida Forest Service. There were no evacuations and no structural damage, he said.
''Cogan grass was burning; it burns hot and fast event when it is green," Chlanda said. "It was back in an old phosphate mining area and got into a couple of slime pits, where bulldozers get bogged down by the slimy, gummy mess. So we went up on dikes and created fire safety lines. We burned the fire out, using fire to fight fire."
Chlanda said the call came in about 4:45 p.m. Monday. By late morning Tuesday, crews were monitoring smoldering areas, watching for hot spots that may flare up, and mapping the area to get a more accurate acreage count, he said.
Although there have been other large fires across the state this season, this is the first large fire for the Lakeland district, he said.
"We are preparing for a more active than normal fire season," Chlanda said. Conditions are fairly dry, mimicking last year, and there is additional wildfire fuel this season, a combination of small vegetation killed off by several frosts and larger vegetation from Hurricane Irma damage, he said.
Marilyn Meyer can be reached at marilyn.meyer@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Follow her on Twitter at marilyn_ledger.