Crews battle South Miami-Dade grass fire for 2nd day; flames scorch over 1,000 acres – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports

SOUTH MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) – Firefighters in South Miami-Dade continued to battle a grass fire near U.S. 1 for a second day.

Officials said the blaze that sparked Tuesday afternoon has spread quickly due to overnight winds.

“It pushed the fire into unburned areas and moved to the north and south, basically in all directions,” said David Rosenbaum with the Florida Forest Service.

As of Wednesday night, the flames have scorched more than 1,000 acres.

“We continue to use ground suppression units, as well as aerial suppression,” said Rosenbaum.

Officials said the fire started when a pickup truck caught fire.

Rosenbaum said the driver was headed to the Florida Keys when he noticed flames coming out of his truck and pulled over near mile marker 125 on U.S. 1.

“Once the fire ignited the dry grass, the winds pushed it into some heavily vegetated areas west of the highway,” said Rosenbaum.

The truck was gone Tuesday night, but the fire continued to burn Wednesday.

Throughout the day, hot spots sparked up, including one that came uncomfortably close to the southbound lanes of the highway once again.

Fortunately, crews were able to keep the flames at bay and prevented another road closure like the one that shut down all southbound lanes of U.S. 1 for hours on Tuesday.

Most of the fire remained further west of U.S. 1 and didn’t pose any danger to people or buildings.

However, Rosenbaum cautioned residents to be safe during the remainder of fire season.

“We’re still dry, and we still have a high fire potential,” he said.

Rosenbaum hopes the coming months are less active.

“Moving into May, hopefully April showers bring May flowers,” he said.

As of Wednesday night, the fire was 30% contained. Crews have gone home for the night but plan to resume efforts to contain the flames on Thursday morning.

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