Wilton Simpson praises Forest Service for subduing wildfire, highlights strong funding

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson hailed the Florida Forest Service and its firefighters with the Blackwater Forestry Center Monday for mitigating a wildfire that occurred March 28 on Garcon Point.

Simpson, in response, credited the fire’s quick disbursal to subsidies from the 2022 Emergency Wildlife Fund. According an announcement, the funds helped prevent the fire from destroying homes while saving lives.

“We avoided a catastrophic disaster because of the hard work and forward thinking from our Florida Forest Service professionals and the critical resources made available from the Emergency Wildfire Management Fund,” Simpson said. “Equipping our fire crews with resources that allow them to clean up from prior disasters and for preventing future ones will protect the people and property across our state.”

Prior to the fire, mitigation efforts were made at Garcon Point, located in Santa Rosa County on Florida’s Panhandle. The process specifically mulched 77 acres of vegetation, which could have served as potential fuel for wildfires along the area’s 7-mile line.

South of the city of Milton, Firefighters noted favorable weather conditions and terrain for bulldozing at the blaze’s site helped “conservatively” save 20 acres if not for the mitigation line. They also stated the fire potentially could have destroyed a significant number of homes a half mile down wind if not for previous mitigation.

According to the announcement, the Garcon Point wildfire was caused by “embers from a nearby structure blowing into thick, overgrown vegetation on a day with low humidity and 10-15 north winds.”

While the initial structure could not be saved, firefighters did save two homes near the blaze. Additionally, more than a dozen homes were spared from the fire as the mitigation line stopped all forward progress and limited the blaze’s spread to just three acres.

“It had everything it needed to become a major fire,” Santa Rosa County Forest Area Supervisor Shannon Bowman said. “The wind, the humidity, in that area, it had the potential to really grow until it hit that line and the head of the fire went out.”

In similar events at Oyster Bay and Five Mile Swamp, located on Garcon Point’s Peninsula, recent fires destroyed 200 acres and 2,600 acres, respectively. The fire at Five Mile Swamp also destroyed more than a dozen homes.

Back in 2022, the Florida Legislature allocated $93 million to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for fire mitigation through the Florida Forest Service. The funding was specifically distributed to “enhance clean up efforts from prior disasters and for future disasters to prevent severity of destruction and to save lives.”

Since its rollout, funds from the Florida Forest Service have helped protect nearly 27,000 home sand produce 1,165 miles of mitigation line covering 10,000 acres.

Florida Forest Service, a division of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, oversees more than 1 million acres of state forests. The department also provides assistance on more than 17 million acres of private and community forests, all while protecting homes, forestland, and nature resources from wildfires on more than 26 million acres.

“I’m proud of the Florida Forest Service team,” Florida Forest Service Director Rick Dolan said. “The resources and investment by the Florida Legislature, Commissioner Simpson, and Governor DeSantis have helped us protect lives and property in Florida.”