Florida Panhandle wildfires burn nearly 10,000 acres, evacuations remain in place

March 6 (UPI) -- Two wildfires in the Florida panhandle have burned nearly 10,000 acres collectively, state officials said Sunday.

The Bertha Swamp Fire, which began in Gulf County, has ballooned to 8,000 acres and pushed into Bay and Calhoun counties, and was 10% contained as of Sunday morning, while the Adkins Avenue Fire held at 1,400 acres and was 35% contained, the Florida Forest Service said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Saturday that a state of emergency declared in response to the fires had been expanded to include Calhoun and Gulf counties.

"Right now, the main focus is, of course, getting the fire contained, but we are marshaling assets and we will provide whatever the folks here in northwest Florida (need)," said DeSantis.

Overall, 150 wildfires are currently burning more than 12,100 acres throughout the state.

Residents in the Bear Creek area were put under mandatory evacuation orders Saturday in response to the Bertha Swamp Fire and all existing evacuation orders from the Adkins Avenue Fire remained in place. Overall about 600 homes have been evacuated.

"There is no timeline for when residents will be allowed to return home," the Florida Forest Service said.

The forest service said additional resources had been deployed to combat the two largest fires.

A total of 17 tractor-plow units are combatting the Bertha Swamp Road Fire, while 25-tractor-plow units have been sent to build fire lines around the Adkins Avenue fire and more than 103,000 gallons of water have been dropped on the blaze since Friday.

Both fires have been intensified by strong winds and dry conditions that are expected to persist throughout the region as "fire danger levels remain elevated," officials said.

The forest service said that the fires sparked in part due to debris left behind by when Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm, blew through the region in 2018, destroying 2.8 million acres of trees across 11 counties in the Florida Panhandle.

"These are some of the most forested counties in the state," the forest service said. "Due to the exponential volume of broken, uprooted and blown over trees, dense pockets of vegetation remain on the ground and serve as fuel for wildfires."

The cause of the fires remains under investigation but a burn ban has been issued for Bay County after Sheriff Tom Ford said the fire started when someone was burning trash in their backyard.