Palm Coast Times

February 9, 2023 – Firefighting operations at Arrow Materials near Favoretta have ceased, as the Florida Forest Service determine the mulch fire only requires monitoring as of the end of the day Tuesday (February 7). Flagler County Fire Rescue has been assisting the Florida Forest Service and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the lead response agencies, for more than two months.

“As I’m sure the area residents are, we are thrilled to have this one behind us,” said Fire Rescue Chief Mike Tucker. “It was a complicated and dangerous process. We had to wait for enough of that initial one-acre fire to burn through a good portion of that dense brush and mulch before it was safe enough to dismantle it.” 

With the guidance of the Florida Forest Service, dismantling the fire into smaller, more manageable piles allowed water resources set up around the perimeter to do directly impact the core to extinguish it.

“We are confident that the fire does not pose a threat to impacting the surrounding neighborhood or roadways anymore,” said Bunnell District Manager Anthony Petellat. “The Florida Forest Service will continue to visit the site and evaluate the mulch pile for heat until the company completely removes the debris.”

Much of the effort of firefighters over the last two months was preventing the fire from spreading to other large piles on the property. Arrow Materials, located at 295 County Road 200, is a company that collects brush to convert it into mulch.

“We made great progress once we were able to get about 2.9 million gallons of water on the smaller piles,” Petellat said. “We appreciate the assistance Flagler County Fire Rescue provided us.”

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Original source can be found here.