Collier brush fire grows to 6,000 acres, forces 60 from homes, burns two houses
Tired of the cold weather and looking for a fresh start, Thompson Goble gave up everything he had a year and a half ago to move to the Naples area from upstate New York.
On Tuesday, Goble — a resident and maintenance man at the Club Naples RV Resort on Beck Boulevard — was at risk of losing everything again, this time to a 6,000-acre inferno burning south of Interstate 75 off Collier Boulevard.
“I’m scared. I don’t know what I’m going to come back to. Where am I going to go if there is nothing left?” said Goble, one of about 60 evacuees who gathered Tuesday afternoon at the Golden Gate Community Center.
The 6,000-acre brush fire burning in eastern Collier County has destroyed two homes, one abandoned and one livable, said Samantha Quinn, a spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service. The two homes were in the area of Benfield and Le Buff roads, off Beck Boulevard, just south of the Alligator Alley toll plaza. Nobody was in either home at the time they burned.
“None of the homes were from the RV parks that were evacuated,” Quinn said, trying to dispel rumors.
Three pole barns also were destroyed by the fire, which remained 30 percent contained late Tuesday, Quinn said. No other homes were threatened.
Interstate 75 from the Golden Gate Parkway exit to State Road 29 will remain closed overnight, as will the stretch of Collier Boulevard from Davis Boulevard to Rattlesnake Hammock Road. Firefighters were stationed around the area in case the fire jumps I-75.
The cause of the fire remains unclear.
While the brush fire raged on either side of Benfield Road, crews were trapped beneath the south wall of the fire early this afternoon, said Naples Deputy Chief Mike Nichols. "It's surreal," he said, pointing to the "normally green and lush" area that had been burned to a smolder.
By 10 p.m., the area was ashes. Hundreds of low-burning flames bundled beneath black sticks like campfires under a cloud of thick smoke. The only other visible light came from distant fire trucks and one dim room light, powered by a humming generator deep in the woods.
Firefighters said one man stayed in his house on Benfield Road while the fire closed in around him and firefighters pleaded with him to evacuate. He refused and saved the house with sprinklers and hoses.
The neighbor's home directly across the street went up in flames.
Nichols said the strategy of the day was to find defensible positions in driveways and then divert flames away from people's homes. That effort was mostly successful throughout the day, despite unpredictable winds and drier-than-usual ground cover.
Embers jumped streets throughout the day, making it difficult for firefighters to contain the flames, Nichols said as he drove through the debris. He had worked on the blaze through the night until 3 a.m. Five hours later, he returned to the staging area.
About two dozen evacuees slept at the shelter inside the gym at the Golden Gate Community Center, according to Red Cross volunteers who coordinated the effort. Several others elected to sleep in their cars in the center's parking lot.
About 10:30 p.m., as people were settling in their cots for the night, shelter manager David Kirk said the evacuees seemed in good spirits.
"They all know each other," he said, "so that helps."
There were card games, and food and water set up throughout the gym. At the time, people still were waiting to hear when they could return home.
One of the evacuees was Michael Godin, 75. He and his wife, June, left their home in Club Naples. He said it was the first time they had been forced to leave, even after hurricanes had rolled through. "Fire's a little different," Godin said outside the community center on his way out to the car.
With limited information making its way to the community center, evacuees such as Godin relied mostly on gossip to hear about the status of their neighborhood and homes and when they might be able to return.
"But I'm not worried," Godin said before climbing in the car to sleep a few hours next to June.
Goble waited with his bluetick hound Tippy by his red two-seat 1999 Honda Del Sol, which he said he might have to sleep in. The Golden Gate shelter wasn’t open to pets.
“I have family back home, but none here,” Goble, 55, said. “My family is the people in the park.”
It was about 1 p.m. Tuesday when Collier County deputies' cruisers began moving through Club Naples, with deputies ordering residents to evacuate, said DeeDee Crombie, 59, who lives at the park with her husband, Ted. They also were waiting Tuesday afternoon at the Golden Gate shelter with their puggles Kylie and Cassie.
They said they grew worried Tuesday morning when they saw fresh plumes of dark smoke, helicopters circling overhead and ash collecting on cars.
“They told us to get out. Don’t take your money. Don’t take your jewelry. Just take your lives and get out,” said DeeDee Crombie, a year-round resident of Club Naples. “Everything we own in the world is there.”
She called Tuesday’s fire and evacuation the “worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“I’m glad we’re all safe, and I want all my friends to be safe,” she said, “but we sold our home and gave up everything we had to come here.”
The fire uprooted students, too. Those who attend Lely Elementary School were moved to Calusa Park Elementary on Tuesday because of the smoke. A decision would be made early Wednesday on whether to close schools, Collier County Public Schools spokesman Greg Turchetta said in a statement.
Weather conditions Tuesday, including a wind that slightly shifted in direction, helped the fire spread and grow from 4,000 to 6,000 acres, said Dan Summers, director for Collier County Emergency Services.
"That wind shift blows a lot of these embers into some of the unburnt areas from yesterday," Summers said. "And it's that dry and that volatile back there. So as that wind shifts, it's just like blowing across the campfire in a different direction. You're going to push the embers in a different way, and that's what's happened here with these little wind shifts."
Bob Easton, another Club Naples resident, thought he and his wife had seen the worst of the fire Monday, so he went golfing with friends Tuesday morning.
But about 12:30 p.m., one of his golfing buddies got word that hot embers were landing on the roof of his mobile home, Easton said.
“We picked up after the 10th hole and came back lickety-split,” Easton. 70, said.
He and his wife made it out with their 1980 Trillium travel trailer and were camped in the Golden Gate Community Center parking lot with their neighbors, Bill and Trudy Spearing, both 65.
“Being as I’ve got my trailer, it’s an inconvenience for me,” said Easton, a part-time resident from Ontario.
The evacuation was more than an inconvenience for the Spearings, who left behind their 40-foot RV and all of their clothes for the next three months. They fled with their Jack Russell terrier-pug mix, E.J.
“Right now,” Trudy Spearing said, “we’re kind of homeless.”
Collier Boulevard remained closed Tuesday from Golden Gate Parkway to Rattlesnake Hammock Road. It had been closed just from Davis Boulevard to Rattlesnake Hammock.
Personnel from the Florida Forest Service and state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission — as well as firefighters from Collier, Sarasota, Lee and Charlotte counties — worked through the night Monday and into Tuesday battling the brush fire.
More: Detours for I-75 travelers
The wind was first coming from the east and then started to slightly shift toward the north, Summers said.
"Any wind shift like that in a fire this big in conditions this dry really, you know, they really magnify the situation," he said.
A scout air craft is going to come into the area again to survey the fire so officials can get a better idea of how contained it is, Summers said.
"He'll do a GPS flyover and come up with containment acreage," he said.
Residents of several communities off Beck Boulevard in East Naples were among those evacuated Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said.
The Caloosahatchee Forestry Center announced a mandatory evacuation Tuesday of Club Naples RV Resort, Panthers Walk RV Resort, Forest Glen Golf & Country Club and the horse stables along Newman Drive. By 8 p.m. Tuesday, Forest Glen residents were permitted to return to their homes with identification proving they lived there.
Quinn, a mitigation specialist with the Florida Forest Service, said the decision to evacuate was made because the fire was moving closer to the communities.
"It's coming this way, that's why," she said. "Whenever it gets within the vicinity that the supervisor feels that's when a decision is made with command and the Forest Area supervisor."
But the fire's exact movement was hard to predict, she said.
"It's very erratic," Quinn said. "It's moving in a lot of different directions. So I can't tell you exactly where it's moving. I'd have to see it on a map. But it's heading in the vicinity of these communities and also the horse stables."
Crews were working Tuesday to contain the main fire, with boundaries of Beck Boulevard to the north, Sabal Palm Road to the south, Picayune Strand State Forest to the east and Collier Boulevard to the west.
Related story: Brush fire in Collier: Cancellations
Firefighters continued extinguishing small fires Tuesday that popped up on the outskirts of the Naples Lakes community, just east of Collier Boulevard on Rattlesnake Hammock Road.
Julie Cerach, who lives on Cerromar Drive, said she saw 40- to 50-foot flames burning the trees Monday night in a wooded area abutting Naples Lakes and Serenity Park. Firefighters arrived to battle the fire. A smaller fire started burning around lunchtime Tuesday.
“When I walked out my front door, I looked to the left and I saw flames,” she said. “I’m used to seeing it on the news in California, and I like it that way.”
Brian Roe, Naples Lakes’ general manager, said his office has kept in communication with the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and firefighters and has been sending emails to residents. Staff also watered the lawn nearest to Collier Boulevard, he said.
The Sheriff’s Office has asked residents to stay inside as much as possible to stay out of the way of firefighters, Roe said. No Naples Lakes homes were damaged as of late Tuesday afternoon
“There is no evacuation right now,” Roe said. “People can choose to leave if they’d like, but there is no talk at this point of evacuation.”
Virginia Vinci, a Naples Lakes resident, said she was prepared to leave if necessary.
“I packed a bag for like three days of clothes,” she said. “I packed my dog’s bag, dog food and what I would need for him. I had it in the trunk of my car.”
Heavy smoke and the threat of fire didn’t keep people off Naples Lakes’ golf course and driving range Tuesday afternoon.
Paul Caprioli, John Hill and Jack Couzens were on the greens, just as they are every Tuesday, they said. The smoke was noticeable, but it wasn’t a problem, Caprioli said.
“Typical bad game,” he joked.
Early Tuesday, bulldozers were still working the fire, said Ed Vuolo, forest area supervisor for the Florida Forest Service.
"We're going to continue to improve the (fire) line," Vuolo said. "They've got a strike team of brush trucks coming in to help start cooling off the line, from where we contained it within the dozer lines."
As bulldozers crunched through the brittle brush and flames greedily climbed the dry trees across from her property, Cindy Murlowski, owner of the Belle Meade Ranch, was calling local stables to find a safe spot for the five horses still left at her ranch.
"We got a trailer coming to take the horses off property, and I'm trying to find some place because all the other horses that left here, there were over 150, they're all around scattered and everybody is full," Murlowski said. "We'll stay as long as we can."
Murlowski said she, her helpers, and retired show and trailer horses stayed at first because it appeared that they would be safe.
"We stayed because we were all cleared and they were pretty confident at that time that we were safe," she said.
But then the wind shifted.
"Even up until this morning it was pretty quiet, and then it picked up again," Murlowski said.
She said she has never seen a fire like this so close to her property.
"We always had it away from us," Murlowski said. "Now it's right on top of us."
The wind, carrying embers and debris through the air, prompted Murlowski, her co-owner Joanne Pasqua and other helpers to rush to the other side of the ranch after a small fire sparked up on a neighboring property.
With shovels and hoses they frantically worked to put out the flames.
"This is nuts," Pasqua said. "I guess you have to have a lot of respect for fire. I mean it happened like that. Unbelievable."
Facebook Live: Scene from the brush fire off Newman Drive in eastern Collier County
The Collier County Bureau of Emergency Services has opened the Emergency Information Hotline to respond to questions about the fire threat. The hotline numbers are 239-252-8444 or 311 (Collier County only) and will be open until further notice.
Tuesday afternoon, the Golden Gate Community Center gym, which usually hosts open court basketball from 3 to 5 p.m., saw evacuees slowly file in.
Some played cards on the foldable tables, others read books or chatted about the events of the day.
Red Cross volunteers provided snacks and water for the roughly 50 to 60 who had left their homes and driven to the center.
"Right now we're a reception center," said volunteer Doug Caperton. "A place for people to come and sit and just take it easy. And we're waiting to be designated as a shelter."
About 100 evacuees at the Golden Gate Community Center heard just before 8 p.m. that the center would be an overnight shelter, in case they can't go home later in the night as they wait to hear more from the fire line
The mood Tuesday afternoon, with some evacuees waiting in their cars in the center's parking lot and others mingling inside, was still fairly good, Caperton said.
"They start getting antsy when it gets dark," he said. "That's when there's a problem."
As the sun set behind a wall of red smoke, support from around Collier County poured toward the brush fire late Tuesday evening to meet their evacuated neighbors and first responders.
Dozens of fire engines congregated in a staging area at the corner of Collier Boulevard and Davis. Firefighters hopped off trucks, faces and hands dirt brown after 10 hours of battling the flames, and found mountains of donated water, Gatorade and food waiting for them.
Around 6 p.m., Red Cross volunteer Pat Roberts, 58, of North Naples, said the organization had passed out as many as 600 meals throughout the day. "The people of Collier County have been just amazing," she said on her way to the Sheriff's tent with an armful of fried chicken.
Huddled over car hoods or coolers, firefighters wolfed down supper. Some tossed sandwiches into the engines for later, while local businesses in vans and families in SUVs filed into the lot, squeezing between flashing lights to unload groceries.
Greg Shapiro, 39, of Tastebuds Custom Catering, brought 100 hot meals of chicken, rice and bourbon bread pudding. "I got friends who had to be evacuated," said Shapiro. "So I thought, 'Let's throw some food together.'"
Dale Downey and her family brought two pick-ups worth of groceries, 250 meals, from a local Publix in Marco Island after raising funds in a three-hour social media blitz. "Somebody called me and said that first responders didn't have dinner," Downey said as she unloaded bins of water. "I'm not having that in my county."
Ten minutes north of the staging area, a slow stream of evacuees shuffled into the Golden Gate Community Center, where dinner was waiting on a line of tables inside the gym. Red Cross volunteers passed out food, still unsure whether or not they would need to house people overnight.
At 7 p.m., about half a dozen families from around the community had walked in to offer up their empty rooms to strangers who might need a place to stay over night. Angel Animal Hospital also offered a free night stay for evacuated pets.
"We just wanted to help people," said Bob Thomas alongside his wife Suzanne, after leaving their name and number with the front desk. The longtime Golden Gate City residents said they were used to hosting hurricane parties, but this is the first time they've needed to step up for a fire emergency.
Related links:
Collier County residents offer to help those affected by brush fire
Collier brush fire means stay indoors to avoid smoke inhalation
FHP: Part of I-75 shut down due to Collier County brush fire
Dense smoke advisory issued for Collier until 7 a.m. Wednesday
Brush fire closes portion of Collier Boulevard
Lely Elementary conducts precautionary evacuation
Some choose to evacuate as 3,500-acre brush fire burns in eastern Collier County