Lightning To Blame For Land O' Lakes Brush Fire

While the black plume of smoke no longer rises into the sky over Land O’ Lakes, officials are still keeping watch on a 7-acre wooded area that caught .

According to Don Ruths of the state Division of Forestry, the fire was likely started by lightning and is still producing some hotspots. The area impacted is just east of U.S. 41 on State Road 54, next to Winter Quarters RV park and near the Village on the Pond and Cypress Cove subdivisions.

“We haven’t called it controlled,” Ruths said, adding that there had been a “small escape” around one of the lines.

As for the cause, Ruths explained that a lightning strike earlier in the week is is to blame.

“What happens with lighting is usually when it strikes a tree, it travels down the side of the tree and impacts the ground,” he said. “(It) starts a slow cooking.”

If rain doesn’t extinguish that slow cooking, he said, a fire may break out the next day as wind helps the blaze grow. This process usually “takes about 24 hours.”

The fire broke out about 5 p.m. yesterday, June 8, and was mostly contained by 7:30 p.m. Pasco County Fire Rescue, the Land O’ Lakes Volunteer Fire Department and the Division of Forestry all responded.

According to Land O’ Lakes Volunteer Fire Department Chief Gene Wright, no homes were threatened and no one was injured.