2 days Ago By Skyler Shepard, Juan Ortega
The smell of smoke alarmed residents in parts of South Florida, prompting more than 150 calls within an hour to a fire rescue dispatch center. The smoke was from a 10-acre wildfire in western Palm Beach County, many miles south of Lake Okeechobee, according to the Division of Forestry . The National Weather Service in Miami on Thursday warned that most of South Florida already has been under drought conditions, and said that low humidity coupled with gusty winds has been raising “fire weather concerns.
” Many people from West Boca were phoning fire rescue about the smoke. Despite the influx of calls, fire rescue officials said no other fires were found across a region Wednesday night despite 12 dispatched calls to investigate what was happening. “We have spoken with the Division of Forestry,” according to Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.
“They were working on an approximate 10-acre vegetative debris/mulch fire.” Many people remarked about the hazy conditions as the wind pushed smoke across the region. The fire in western Palm Beach County was largely contained by Thursday, while efforts were underway to extinguish it entirely.
12:15 PM: Numerous reports of smoke have been reported from Broward county. The source of this smoke is coming from a couple of fires in western Palm Beach county, and the brisk NW winds are carrying this smoke into portions of the metro. — NWS Miami (@NWSMiami) March 6, 2025 Midday Thursday, the weather service said on X, “Numerous reports of smoke have been reported from Broward County.
The source of this smoke is coming from a couple of fires in western Palm Beach County, and the brisk NW winds are carrying this smoke into portions of the metro.” In a separate incident, a brush fire was reported in Palm Beach County at around 8000 U.S.
27 on Wednesday afternoon. Property owners used water trucks to extinguish a small smoldering fire on agricultural land. As the wildfire threat lingers, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue says it is prepared to respond with 19 brush trucks stationed throughout the county.
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