PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — St. Lucie County Fire District Chief Nate Spera said it's going to be roughly another week before a mulch fire, which started on Aug. 25, is extinguished.
Fire crews on Tuesday continued battling the 28-acre blaze near Glades Cutoff Road and Range Line Road in western St. Lucie County.
"It should take, I'm anticipating between three days and a week before we see a real appreciable change in conditions out there," Spera said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Officials said the conditions are not improving as quickly as they had hoped, so they’re now taking more action to try to give residents relief sooner from lingering smoky conditions.
Spera said construction crews have begun creating a levy around the fire, and that construction should take two to three days to complete.
Once it's finished, five to six million gallons of water per day will flow to the area from a reclaimed water line in Port St. Lucie, just one mile north of the fire. That water will then be used to fill the levy and saturate the debris pile.
"We anticipate water will be flowing water onto that property by end of business tomorrow, which would be about 24 hours ahead of schedule from our original intent to do that," Spera said.
Spera said the fire should be knocked down completely in the next 10 days.
"A lot of folks are suffering from respiratory ailments and all and we decided to get back into the game," Spera said. "This is not normally what the fire district would be involved in, but we put ourselves in the coordination efforts between DEP, the Department of Emergency Management, and the property owner to try and mitigate this a lot more rapidly than normally would happen."
Spera said it would take multiple fire engines operating 24 hours a day for weeks to fill the levy with enough water to saturate the area. He added that using water from the nearby line is the best option other than letting the fire burn itself out.
The site in western St. Lucie County is owned by Kolter Properties and is used as a site to create topsoil for other home sites.
"We have reached out to the developer, who is committed now to use whatever equipment — after the water is delivered to the property — to spread out the material, ensure it's soaked with the water we're delivering," Spera said.
