St. Lucie County - Tuesday September 13, 2022: The developer that owns the land on which the Glades Mulch fire has been smoking and smoldering for the past two weeks has begun building a dyke around the fumes rising from the 28-acre debris field and the St. Lucie County Fire District will pump five to six million gallons of water into that dyke in an effort to smother the smoke and put the fire out for good.
The announcement follows a wave of complaints about the potential health hazards from the ongoing fumes that have blown over much of St. Lucie County. The Glades Mulch fire began on August 25th and was brought under control the next day, but it’s been smoldering and smoking ever since.
On Friday a news release from the SLC Fire District stated - "active extinguishment is not practical as that site is extremely large, remote, and has very limited water supply. " The release went on to state that "regulation of this type of land management falls to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and outside the scope of local entities, including the City of Port St. Lucie and the St. Lucie County Fire District."
"In consultation with the Florida Forest Service, it was determined that the current mitigation efforts have not met expectations and a new strategy will be employed," states a new release issued Monday by the Fire District. It reveals that a 36 inch reclaimed water line was found a mile north of the burning area and water from that line will be used to fill the dyke and douse the fire.
Its expected to take 48 to 72 hours for construction of the dyke to be completed.
The SLC Fire District has not yet responded to calls from WQCS for comment.